Bettye Swann – Make Me Yours
from the album Make Me Yours on Money (1967).

Smith – Baby It’s You
from the Death Proof Soundtrack on Warner Brothers (2007) and originally from A Group Called Smith on Dunhill (1969).

Greetings loyal ear fuzz listeners/readers. It has been ages since I connected with you for some music and thoughts. My apologies for my absence, and my thanks to the ear fuzz team for all their insightful musings and additions. A recent discussion here at fuzz HQ has led to some thinking about the nature of audioblogs and ours in particular. The access to any and darn near all music now has become (nearly) overwhelming. When in the past I could find some jazz nugget or even sample-based beat construction in my collection and write a post for tunes that had no internet presence beyond crazy virus laden Belarussian mp3 download “stores,” probably the whole album is now zipped up somewhere waiting for you along with every deleted single by the artist/producer/label. For better (Numero Group and Now and Again) or worse (no names named) we’re approaching the point of every tune being dug out of the crates on online. And what does all this access give us beyond a restructuring of one’s definition of “rare” groove? It means we can always, eternally be awash in new music. So much of it can be beautiful and eye-opening that this is a thrill…and so much more of it can be unenjoyable garbage that it can be discouraging until that next diamond shines through. Hmmm…just like the old days, but faster and quicker and less sore knees from the boxes on the floor. And just like those good ol’ days, the key is often the connective tissues that puts songs, albums, artists, images, and memories together for us. I know I’m not saying anything too new with this paragraph, but that almost goes toward proving my point.

Before I ramble too far afield, I’ll stop and say, “It is good to be back. I hope to share some music and thoughts that might inspire, improve, or intensify your life however briefly before your on to your next discovery.” To get me back in the groove, I’d like to offer up two of my favorite songs of 2008 (it has been a long time). Both of these tracks where huge hits in their day (the late 1960s), but neither had never really entered my brain until last year. Since that time they’ve remained delightfully lodged and have introduced me to more new and exciting things. Each is a powerful, heartfelt soul lament by a female vocalist…Swann’s is an original by the artist and both launched and proved the zenith of her career & Smith also never reached the heights achieved by their perfectly different version of the Burt Bacharach tune originally made famous by the Beatles and the Shirelles.

A Beautiful Mind (Instrumental) – Aceyalone & RJD2
from the album Magnificent City Instrumentals on Decon (2006). Also appears on The Mad Men Season One Soundtrack on Manhattan (2008).

Little Willy – Sweet
from the album Sweet on Camden (1973).

Saying that commercial radio is far from a good place to discover new music is undoubtedly preaching to the choir that is our lovely Ear Fuzz audience. Possibly the next statement to be made is equally non-relevatory: television is remarkably musically diverse these days and provides lots of elements to broaden the mind. Commercials (Ms. Shaw and Ms. James can really sell some Dockers), NBA broadcast interstitials (was that really both Madlib and Zappa during the same Lakers game a couple of weeks ago?), and show soundtracks (what this post is about) have far outpaced actual music on tv since MTV decided the “M” stood for “moronic, drunk, pretty people.”

A couple of real nice examples from show soundtracks feature two songs (one well known to me, one a new discovery) from two TV shows I am really enjoying that both provide a great deal of their entertainment from their highly complete and reverential recreation of a different time in America’s history. First up is the brilliant instrumental for “A Beautiful Mine” produced by RJD2 for the Magnificent City album he made with Aceyalone. That album is amazing, and this song in particular is the kind of dense, multi-movement beat symphony (crud, I wish I could think of something less sycophantic to call this than a freakin’ “beat symphony”) that RJD2 had on lock for most of the 2000s. I’ve loved this song for a minute, but it has been high in my head since I’ve been enjoying it as the opening credits for Mad Men…aka The BEST television show currently in production. The show is all about life for the urbane, upper-middle class creative types in the late 50s/early 60s US, so I cannot say that it captures the feel of the show in some unique way since this is clearly not a song of that period. However, the sharp beats, lush strings, and various foreboding elements provide a feeling of the lurking intensity and uncertainty that permeates Mad Man. Wonderful show, super-fantastic song…a great pairing.

While, Mad Men helped give RJD2’s track a new mental image, I discovered a new track watching Life On Mars recently. Taking full advantage of the show’s storyline of a police detective who travels through time from the present to 1973 (yup, but it isn’t as bad as it sounds), the production has made music a heavy part of creating the 1973 environment…appropriate for a show named after a David Bowie song. Anyways, one of the biggest hits of 1973 was Sweet’s “Little Willy,” which actually fit extremely well into the episode’s story. Sweet was a pop-rock outfit with the emphasis on the pop early in their career when they were under the guidance of writing/arranging duo Chinn & Chapman (who wrote “Little Willy”). Tracking down the album proved an easy effort because these guys were at one point huge stars, although they somewhat wrecked their legacy with attempts at serious, self-written more hard-rock-oriented late in their career. I cannot say I recommend any other songs on this album, but somehow the bluesy pop and harmonized vocals of this track really make me happy and bouncy despite the crap weather of late. Plus poorly veiled double entendres will always have a place on my record shelves.

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At the request of a loyal long-time Ear Fuzz reader/listener, here is a repost of Mista Sinista’s remix of the Tom Tom Club’s DJ shoutout track Who Feelin’ It?.

Birk’s Works – Kenny Burrell
from the album On View At The Five Spot on Blue Note (1959).

Scotch Blues – Kenny Burrell
from the double album Blue Lights Volumes 1 & 2 on Blue Note (1958).

My obsession with all thing Tina Brooks continues. I got into Brooks’s backstory in my post on his albums as a leader, but today let’s start to look at his career as a sideman. Burrell’s first recorded sessions as a jazz artist were both on Blue Note dates lead by guitarist Kenny Burrell. Prior to this, Brooks had worked extensively with a few different R&B bands, but I’ll stick with his jazz work for now. As I’ve stated before, I think Brooks’s greatest strength is his composition, but unfortunately, no Brooks original material appear on these dates.

“Birk’s Works” is from the August 1959 live date at the Five Spot featuring Art Blakey on drums for the whole set and Brooks on tenor for half of the tracks. I’ve never really been much of one of jazz guitar (and Burrell in particular), but KB really gets loose on this Gillespie composition with beautiful mimicry of Charlie Parker’s note bending style. Brooks counters with an ultra smooth solo that owes far more to Lester Young’s influence than The Bird. And throughout the rock-solid backing of Blakey and Bobby Timmons (piano) make for a stellar be-bop track even if our hero Tina isn’t lighting the roof on fire. (additional note: Timmons’s bookending solos are not to be ignored.)

“Scotch Blues” is from an earlier session (May 1958) and is Brooks’s first jazz recording. It is again a Burrell lead session with Blakey providing the backbeat and is one of those studio dates that is essentially a live recording with no audience. Throughout the day of recording the band shifted between a quartet and a septet and everything in between, but for this extremely playful tune we have a quintet with Brooks playing his tenor against the trumpet of Louis Smith. Again, my fascination with Brooks began with the fact that such a talent could have his albums shelved for an extensive period of time, but it has grown largely because of his composing and ability to play and interplay with other horns so well. I think Brooks has some of his best solos on the Blue Lights albums.

Still more I want to say about Tina Brooks…his ability to play well with others is best highlighted in his albums with Freddie Redd and Jackie McLean and we’ll be getting to those soon.

Clifton Anderson – P.G. (From Whom All Blessings Flow)
from the album Landmarks on Milestone (1995).

Sonny Rollins – Where or When
from the album Without A Song: The 9/11 Concert on Milestone (2005).

There are few absolutes in life, rules that have no gray area or wavering. One of mine is no matter what whenever Sonny Rollins is performing within 100 miles of me, I’ll go see it. Rollins has provided me with the single greatest concert experience of my life (SF Jazz Festival 2004) and a few others in the top ten. He is immediately arrestingly different live than in studio recordings (NOTE: he is wonderful in both), which is a relatively unique and amazing thing. Typically Rollins is way out in front of his wonderful band, blowing everyone off stage, but the last time I followed my rule (a few months ago in Berkeley) he was definitely matched by trombonist Clifton Anderson.

Anderson has been playing with Rollins for years, and I’ve heard him many times and always been impressed. But this night he went to a different level and matched Sonny (an amazing accomplishment). The Rollins band has played numerous Anderson compositions, so it was surprising to me to find that Clifton only had one album as a leader – from back in 1995. It is a very nice album and Anderson has one of the richest trombone’s I’ve ever heard. The album features 5 Anderson originals, 2 standards, and a calypso penned by his mother. Today I’ve put up one of Anderson’s compositions “P.G. (From Whom All Blessings Flow)” a God praising religious interpretation of the old hymn. Mainly I chose it because of the variation in tone you get to hear from Anderson’s trombone as he moves between somber classical phrases and the more bop-oriented sections. Monty Alexander on piano and Bob Cranshaw on bass work beautifully with Anderson, as can be expected since they were also playing with Sonny around this time.

I’ve also included a track off the live album the Rollins group did 4 days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. This was in Boston and just days after Rollins had to be evacuated from his lower Manhattan apartment carrying only his sax. Obviously the background story is amazing, but the concert (like all of Rollins’s) stands on its own merits outside of any non-musical context. Again I chose a track that exemplifies Anderson’s virtuosity with his opening solo. However, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Stephen Scott’s brilliant, Keith-Jarrett-esque extended solo from the middle of the piece. Of course, Sonny kills it to with extended, reference filled sax runs both before and Scott.

Maybe you’ll considering making my rule one of your own.
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In a totally unrelated item…I wrote something for this great new website JamsBio (full disclosure: one of my best friends works there, but regardless it is great). It is one of those web 2.1 community interfacing sites like facebook or the like, but is entirely built around music and the shared memories of music. Anyways, here’s an article I wrote about hip hop album cover sampling that I think Ear Fuzz folks might like.

Elmer Snowden Quartet: It Don’t Mean A Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing) and Twelfth Street Rag
from Harlem Bango on Riverside Records (1960).

I had the good fortune of visiting with my best friend recently and we spent a lot of time talking and sharing music. He is cultivating a nice collection of old style bluegrass and early country music while he endeavors to learn the banjo. While a lot of this music left me kind of cold (“where are the drums?” i ask…turns out bluegrass doesn’t have drums), I shared with him this record by early jazz artist Elmer Snowden, who played drums, multiple reed instruments, and piano but was most famous for playing the guitar, mandolin, and banjo. The latter two are not typically thought of as having much of a presence in jazz, but in the 1910s and 1920s they were integral in the dixieland style and maintained a presence in the harlem stride tradition before fading from the scene with the big band rage.

Despite no recordings as a leader (and only 2 or 3 as a sideman) during his lengthy hey-day, Snowden secured an indelible place in history by leading his DC area band The Washingtonians to NYC and bringing along a talented young pianist composer named Edward Kennedy Ellington (soon be entitled as Duke). Snowden lead multiple bands (simultaneously) in NYC in the 20s and 30s including one which was bequeathed to pianist Cliff Jackson, but was largely forgotten by the 50s when interest in early jazz prompted radio DJ Chris Albertson to track down Snowden who was working as a parking lot attendant in Philly and (as he did his entire life) teaching jazz however he could.

Though by this time he was 60 years old, Albertson got Snowden in the studio with Jackson again on piano and both gentlemen shine on this record. Much like the producer back then, I thought it would be good to include an Ellington standard from the set, so here is the old favorite “It Don’t Mean A Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)” with a strong stride piano working again Snowden’s rhythm banjo. But the really unique listen is Elmer cutting loose for his opening solo catching the melody well…listen to that banjo swing! The aforementioned friend (let’s call him Independent Clay) pointed out how different Snowden’s banjo sounds compared to bluegrass pickers, and a little poking indicated that 1) Elmer tunes his banjo string intervals wider than typical, more akin to a mandolin and 2) he does not use the typical backing resonator common in bluegrass (lots more info here).

The other song up today is “Twelfth Street Rag,” a mellower tune that again showcases the interplay between the two leads Snowden and Jackson. This really harkens back to the early New Orleans style of jazz. If you enjoy these tunes, I highly recommend the album which is very consistent in quality and similar in vibe throughout. Of course you can find lots of banjos in jazz looking back to (for instance) Louis Armstrong’s famous Hot 5s and Hot 7s sessions, and of course now-a-days you have Bela Fleck. But for me, this is a really unique recording to have a banjo lead, harlem swing album. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

The Way You Look Tonight – Tina Brooks
from the album Minor Move on Blue Note (1978).

Miss Hazel – Tina Brooks
from the album True Blue on Blue Note (1960).

Back To The Tracks – Tina Brooks
from the album Back To The Tracks on Blue Note (1978).

David The King – Tina Brooks
from the album The Waiting Game on Blue Note (1999).

Hello, dear readers. I’ve been absent for a long time and first and foremost extensive adulation to Junior for holding the site down solo for May. It is good to see us all popping up now. The reasons behind the long dry spell on my part has lots of factors, but the only one interesting enough to the community at large is that I had a real dearth of music and thoughts I considered inspired enough to share. I was caught in a morass of digging through lots of music (new and old) in an organizational project without finding anything that was really grabbing me. Two things pulled me out: 1) old Tribe Called Quest singles and 2) a deep study of the work of Tina Brooks.

Harold Floyd Brooks garnered the sobriquet “Tina” as a variation on his childhood nickname “Teeny,” which announced both something about his stature and his younger brother (to David Brooks) status. The North Carolina native hit the New York hard bop scene after some solid learning experience in a variety of R & B bands, and caught the attention of Alfred Lion early on and thus ended up recording exclusively for Blue Note. He was a sideman on records by Kenny Burrell, Freddie Hubbard, and Jackie McLean (I smell another post on these sessions), but I am most impressed with his compositional work and his four albums as a leader. All four albums are in a quartet or quintet setting and were recorded in the span of 4 years beginning in 1958. Brooks health failed him in the early 60s due to his drug addiction (sadly so common of jazz musicians at the time). Although he lived until 1974, he did not record further and at the time of his death only one of the four albums featured here was released (1960’s True Blue). Minor Move and Back To The Tracks had been sequenced, mastered, and even had cover art prepared, but for unknown reasons were vaulted by Blue Note until being released in a box set in the late 70s. The Waiting Game was further unearthed for a Japanese release in 1999. Some more information here.

The reason the delay in releasing these albums is so hard to fathom is because of their extremely consistent and high quality. Brooks didn’t break new ground in the way his fellow saxophonist Coltrane was around that time, but he exemplified the hard bop style beautifully and provided a classic open style for his session mates to explore freely with their solos. Brooks is not the most impressive player himself…he lacks the power and dynamics of Rollins or the limitless expression of Coltrane (who can match these two really), but he has a distinctive style that puts each note out there clearly. This may be an artifact of spending so much formative time in R&B bands, but I quickly developed a taste for this “well enunciated” style. In my own opinion he is often outshone by the solos of Freddie Hubbard (on True Blue in particular) and his other brass players, but he leads a wonderful band. While I mentioned Brooks’s compositional quality, I did pick one standard “The Way You Look Tonight” to include as well. I’ve waxed long on this post already, and am sure I’ll be coming back to Tina Brooks soon…so I’ll get out of your way and let you enjoy the tunes. For hard bop fans, I definitely recommend these albums (although Minor Move is the weakest). I’m glad to be back, hopefully you’ll enoy what is comign, and many thanks to the dearly departed Tina for helping to reignite some missing audio passion.

West Coast Smack and Can You Do Without?
from the album Lyfe ‘N’ Tyme on Priority / All City (1995).

Following up the recent post on The Nonce with an even greater album from the same era, today I’d like to provide you with two tracks from the legendary Lyfe ‘N’ Tyme from The B.U.M.S. (the capitalizationally inventive Brothas Unda MadnesS: comprised of rappers Evocalist and D.Wyze). This album is amazing with a jazzy vibe throughout that recalls that golden age I production of ATCQ and Pete Rock, but gets a laid back slant from these two Bay Area, CA, area rappers (Hayward, what?!). In fact they even have these sweet little interlude samples a la Pete Rock + CL Smooth albums. Overall, start to finish a fantastic hip hop album. Credit where credit is very much due, I originally got turned on to these cats by O-Dub’s Soul-Sides.

I’ve put up two tracks that are similar in that they are built on a bouncy, old-timey jazz boogie sample. Additionally, I noticed after the fact that they are interesting in that neither are produced by the great Joe Quixxx, who produced many of the gems of this album. Absolutely nothing against Quixxx, it just surprisingly turned out that way. First up is “West Coast Smack,” produced by the Baka Boyz. A foul-mouthed pontification on how The B.U.M.S. (in particular) and the west coast (in general) dominates the game. Lots of people copied Das Efx’s rhyme style, but only a few like the B.U.M.S. could bring enough to the table to not sound like copying herbs. This track is lots of fun. I played this at a party recently and while I wish I could say it blew the roof off, truth is it didn’t but I got a very knowing nod from one of the heads in the audience (ten points to Ravenclaw for that cat’s knowledge).

Next up is a harder “Can You Do Without?” produced by King Tech (of Sway and King Tech, who executive produced and released this via their label All City Prod). Again we get the boogie horns, but now they are chopped down to just a short augmentation to color the pounding kick drums and cymbal ride. Both MCs run on with forceful, hip hop reference filled rhymes that ride the beat even when it drops out for almost too quirky samples.

Enjoy…this is a fantastic album with an overall quality and complexity these two tracks and this post do fully represent. Sadly, this album and the two related singles are the only releases from this group. Correct me if I’m wrong, I definitely want to find more.

The Nonce: Mix Tapes, Good To Go, and On The Road Again
from the album World Ultimate on Wild West Records (1995).

For a long time the post-Common’s Resurrection, pre-Jurassic 5’s Quality Control period of the late 90s was a hip hop waste-land. While I still find that time frame to be a real dry spell in terms of amazing albums, I keep uncovering albums from that era to help redeem it. One of my more recent discoveries is the underground championed The Nonce.

This duo (the fantastically named Nouka Basetype and the late Yusef Afloat) from Los Angeles released two albums and an EP between 1995 and 1999, and their debut album World Ultimate is a consistently pleasing listening experience. Start to finish, it is all easy, lazy head nod in effect and the rappers trade off with comfortingly familiar flows that can tend to melt into the hazy background. “Mix Tapes” was released as a single, and it definitely can appeal to the heads with the tapes of making, trading, and getting tapes. The bassline and two note piano sample create a rather haunting vibe for such a nostalgic song, but I chill just listening to this.

A little more interesting in terms in of the production is my favorite track from the album “Good To Go.” The flutter that pans around stereo sets off the lovely boom bap and piano loop. Sounds like the production that inspired early Fat Jon to me. Beautiful stuff that you seldom hear with rappers anymore. And finally, the most commercial track off the album is “On The Road Again,” which is again a slice of life for a hip hop head. Here we get Figures of Speech providing the background vocals and a more uptempo track (or as uptempo as these mellow cats get). Overall The Nonce’s 1995 album full of their own nostalgia, has reached me more than a decade later and filled me with my memories of this type of music and the days when it was all around us.

Preludium Cis Moll
from the album Variations On Classics on Supraphon Records (1982).
Also appears on the compilation Strange Breaks and Mr. Thing on BBE Records (2008).

All The Things You C# – Charles Mingus
from the live album Mingus At The Bohemia on Debut Records (1955).

After spending 10 years in my youth playing classical piano, you would think I would know more about classical music. However, I spent probably 9.9 of those years thinking I’d rather learn to play jazz piano and Frank Sinatra ditties. More the shame for me I guess, but I will say I what little I know I enjoy. And everything I know is decidedly older than Sergei Rachmaninoff (the latest of anything I ever played was Tchaikovsky). Luckily, many others studied where I never ventured and today here’s two “covers” of Rachmaninoff’s famous Prelude in C# minor (check out this wikipedia entry with audio of Rachmaninoff being recorded by Thomas Edison).

First up is jazz-funk version of the prelude by Josef Vobruba with his Orchestra. It is possible this is the Prague Dance Orchestra with whom Vobruba is most often associated, but regardless the conductor is leading a big, funky group. The growing lore of Eastern European breaks is has been upheld by this track, which I had only recently discovered and then was delighted to hear in super clean form on Mr. Thing’s recent compilation for BBE. The sound is huge and the number of elements and instruments contributing is astonishing to me, or probably to many listeners who do not often venture into orchestra territory. And just listen to whomever is attacking that piano, that is fierce, brother Christian.

One of the reasons I liked the Josef Vobruba version so much is my deep love for Charles Mingus’s composition “All The Things You C Sharp,” which is a juxtaposition of the jazz standard “All The Things You Are” with Rachmaninoff’s prelude. Here the themes mix and match throughout lending an entirely new sound to the converted whole (a blend for the ages). High school performance piano piece du jour “Claire de Lune” even gets a little love on the piano lines occasionally, even if it was not able to make it into Mingus’s brilliant title. Recorded live in 1955 (hence the less than stellar audio quality) at the Cafe Bohemia, this version is from early in Mingus’s brilliant run as one of the most influential and far reaching jazz composers. He had not yet matched up with drummer Dannie Richmond, and I do miss DR’s snappy drumming on this one, but overall the horns perform beautifully and Mingus pushes the players around with big, grounded bass. Pianist Mal Waldron, in his solo before Mingus’s amazing bass solo, most clearly states the comparisons of the two composite songs. Deep, enjoyable listening. As a side note, Mingus attempted another “mash-up” on this album playing “Tenderly” against “September In The Rain” for his “Septemberly.”

Thanks to Junior for getting us back online. Way back in January I was exploring my inner obsessive nerd and compiling “best of” lists for all the most important categories: album, movie, book, science paper, etc. So while I get some more posts in order and inspired by Matt W’s mix from the previous post, I wanted to hit you all with my list for the five best mixes of 2007. (I know, I know…my God it’s March and all…still I hope you find something good).

The criteria: I had to hear these for the first time in the calendar year of 2007, regardless of when they were made. Everything is rate on a five star scale, with five being the best. To put things in perspective, I’ve only ever give a ***** rating to maybe half a dozen mixes in my whole life (for what that’s worth), an average mix is ***, and DJ Trainwreck is a 0.0. So after having made my way through 83 mixes in 2007, without further ado:

Number Five: ****.5 Monk One’s Wax Poetics Mix from the Scion sampler Vol. 14.

Monk One makes some smooth mixes, and he really kills this collection of neo-funk and soul and instrumental hip hop. Butter smooth transitions and super dope track selection (choosing so much from the Daptone label is dangerous but genius). I probably dug this mix out of my CD stacks more often than any other in 2007 because of how often it fit the mood I was in or wanted to be in, namely serenely happy and open minded. Plus it is always good to hear a Diverse and Prefuse 73 track, which is what this snippet starts out as (note, you’ll have to turn up the sound as the gain was accidentally low when i recorded these snippets).

Number Four: ****.5 Arthur King’s Pop S#!+

My better half and I do not see eye to eye on many things music wise, but we both agree that the best thing for riding in the car are these ironic mix and mash CDs. Hollertronix, The Rub, and lots of other talented and cheeky folks get PT from us while we’re burning fossil fuels. And this mix where Frenchy Arthur King puts together hip hop and the 80s pop confections that “inspired” them. Blends, sample references, lyrical references, all connections get play. But King’s skills are on display for the opening cut-up in the snippet and then we get into a B.I.G. run captures the spirit of the CD well. Some how AK let’s all the 60 odd tracks on this mix have their time in the sun alone and still fit in lots of dense transitions.

Number Three: ****.6 Play Anything by Sound Advice

Speaking of dense transitions, Brooklyn’s Sound Advice made the independent-mobile mix of the year with their all styles and blends spectacular loosely linked to 80s stalwart / extreme skiing enthusiast John Cusack. Elsewhere and K.Ross made this mix years ago, but somehow it only got around to me early in 2007. Fun and inventive, and filled with great stuff from every source you can imagine. I don’t even mind that they have a U2 track in there briefly and I hate U2 with such a fervently holy passion you would not believe. You can get the whole bloomin’ mix at the duo’s website.

Number Two: ****.6 Special Herbs Box Set by MF Doom

Something totally different from the other mixes on here is the 3 disc mix of beats MF Doom has produced for his long and well (internet fan boy) chronicled career. Doom is an exciting MC and in concert comes across as the most talented, brilliant homeless man you’ve ever stopped to talk with. But the genius of his beats never fully hit me until I was nodding along to collection, which is somewhat loosely mixed together by Doom with little to no cutting or blending. Maybe it is more of a compilation, but it is something beautiful. Doom beats are instantly recognizable as Doom beats and for that reason they can get lumped together and somewhat ignored, but for me it really clicked the subtle variation and cohesive vision throughout his work. Unique and yet extensive, now that is hard to do. This snippet is from the middle of the first CD, but maybe I should have picked something from the third CD which focuses on his time in KMD. Get your own copy.

Number One: ***** Gaslamp Killers by Gaslamp Killer

And finally the mix of the year. And a ***** effort to boot, maybe J Rocc should be nervous? Evidently this mix is also a few years old, but I’d never heard of GK until starting blowing my mind last year. His production has super tight drum programming while often pushing those drum samples to the point of distortion, but he kills with the intricate upper layer of melody or tone recalling early DJ Shadow (less introspective maybe) or RJD2 (but harder). This mix is hard core drums for over an hour, just blasting away at you with the lovely percussion. Some of them you’ll recognize easily, others are from records I’ve never sniffed and probably never will.

Honorable mention mixes: Mason and DJ Zeph – Hip Hop Bebop; DJ FaceMe – Bingo Wings; J Rocc – Taster’s Choice 5; and DJ Platurn – Best of ATCQ.

It’s good to be back. Lots more posts coming. I hope you enjoy this.