Image credit: Max Williams

I was ten years old when I bought my first cassettes. With some of my savings I took the bus to the city with my brother and got two singles, Sir Mix-a-Lot’s Baby Got Back and Del tha Funkee Homosapien’s Mistadobalina. It was a big deal back then in 1992, listening to them back-to-back all summer long. Over the years I continued listening to hip-hop, but because most of my money was spent on video games for the Sega Mega Drive (or Genesis for US readers) it was merely a casual interest. It lasted until 1996 before I really started getting attracted to music. Hip-hop was still my genre of preference but I couldn’t really identify with the hip-hop culture. Gangsta rap was very popular at the time but I never felt comfortable with its commercialized sound and negativity in the lyrics.

Luckily there were more serious and intelligent hip-hop collectives around too if you looked hard enough. Through websites like Hiphopinfinity (which sadly closed years ago) I found out about more socially aware hip-hop artists and collectives like Quannum, Anticon, Freestyle Fellowship and the Stones Throw label. I was hooked on this music for years. This week, while flipping through and listening to my old hip-hop albums again, I was startled by the difference in how well those records had aged over the years. Some of them still sounded surprisingly fresh but others – even those that I regarded as my favourite albums back then – sounded undeniably dated.

As I was rediscovering my hip-hop background I decided to collect some songs that still get me going. Which resulted in two playlists, the first of which is included below. Hopefully by revisiting these hip-hop albums again it will lead to some discoveries for others.

1. Lyrics Born – Hott People
   Quannum Spectrum (Quannum, 1999)
2. Latyrx – Lady Don’t Tek No
   Lady Don’t Tek No (Solesides, 1997)
3. Freestyle Fellowship – Innercity Boundaries
   Innercity Griots (4th & Broadway, 1993)
4. A Tribe Called Quest – Jazz (We’ve Got)
   The Low End Theory (Jive, 1991)
5. Quasimoto – Come on Feet
   The Unseen (Stones Throw, 2000)
6. Breakestra – Inner City Blues
   Live Mixtape Pt. 2 (Stones Throw, 2001)
7. Handsome Boy Modeling School – Holy Calamity (Bear Witness II)
   So … How’s Your Girl? (Tommy Boy, 1999)
8. Binary Star – Reality Check
   Masters of the Universe (Subterraneous / Trc, 2000)
9. Haiku d’Etat – Still Rappin’
   Haiku d’Etat (Meanstreet, 1998)

Stream playlist

Image:Estudio Mopa

My heart has drifted too long like a cloud, so come and heal me,
bring me to the dirt, let my pores ooze with the brine of discoteques.

Hey you! Come unto me! Let the meadow march into my mouth!
I’m due for a moist trembling emotion, don’t you think? Well, don’t you?

- Spencer Reece. Ghazals from Spring.

Hot Chip – We’re Looking for a lot of Love
(Made in the Dark / 2008)
Friendly Fires – Paris
(Paris / 2008)
Elevator Suite – The Wheel
(Elevator Suite / 2008)
Das Pop – Fool for Love
(Fool for Love / 2008)
These New Puritans – Colours
(Beat Pyramid / 2008)
Bam Bam – Hi-q
(Psicodelia Mexicana Siglo XXI / 2008)(Web)
Clinic – free not free
(Do it! / 2008)

A few of the new records that have been spinning in my bedroom this past weeks. Delving into the up-late tangles & riddles of the 21st Century heart.

Today we are engaged in a deadly global struggle for those who would intimidate, torture, and murder people for exercising the most basic freedoms. If we are to win this struggle and spread those freedoms, we must keep our own moral compass pointed in a true direction. ~ Barack Obama

.

” Hold on to your pants. The Future is here. ”

01. Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson – Ghost Riders In The Sky
VH1 Storytellers [LIVE] (1998)
02. Dolly Parton – Jolene (DJ Soap’s BAMF Remix)
(floating on the net, 2008)
03. Nicola Conte – Kind of Sunshine
Other Directions (2004)
04. Buckshot LeFonque – Paris Is Burning
Music Evolution (1997)
05. Buckshot LeFonque – Jungle Grove
Music Evolution (1997)
06. Jurassic 5 – Acetate Prophets
Power In Numbers (2002)
07. Fantastic Plastic Machine – Paragon
Beautiful (Emperor Norton, 2001)
08. Herbie Hancock – Safiatou (Feat. Santana and Angilique Kidjo)
Possibilities (2005)
09. Beastie Boys – Freaky Hijiki
The Mix Up (2007)
10. Supreme Beings of Leisure – This World
11i (2008)

Note: Another Gobama list, This one is actually complicated to make since I want it thick with rhythm, clean, fast, but also enjoyable. Contrast to last one that is forceful. This series turns out to be interesting because I have to find “different” combination, something odd yet not weird. Remixing favorite songs and finding futuristic blend. The working title was ‘Houston polyglot mix‘. I want a list that is steady and restrained, southern politeness, but also fast and delicate. Friendly to ear dance like beat. It comes with Country-Jazz-Jungle all blended tightly and flipping within blink of an eye. Anyway, hope it works. A lot of interesting songs in there. Also: visit Comfort Radio. I crib his songs.

See also: The Big Mo Tuesday List
Image: joshc

PS. yes. The sidebar is a little messy. We’ll get to fixing it eventually. Also. New site design? What do you think?

Image credit: unknown

This is the third and final part of a series that pays tribute to the supernatural ambience of the ocean’s deep. Not so much the sea itself but the mystery and solitude that lies beneath its seemingly endless surface is what brought inspiration for this series. Whereas the previous part evoked the solitude of a dark endeavour to the depths of the ocean, this list is more hopeful and during the final part even strangely romantic.

The central piece here is the overwhelming performance by Lubomyr Melnyk of his so-called Continuous Music on piano. A tidal wave of notes comes crashing down on the listener. An endlessly swirling composition that constantly changes only in the tiniest details. Comparisons could be made with Charlemagne Palestine’s Strumming Music (read and listen here), but Melnyk is more of a romanticist and his work feels less abstract.

And finally, the oddly romantic piece for guitar and theremin by Pamelia Kurstin and the heartbreaking violin melody on Tom Waits’ Fawn mark the end of our sub-aquatic voyage.

1. Francois Couturier – Nostalghia
   Nostalghia: Song For Tarkovsky (ECM, 2006)
2. Slow Six – Distant Light, Part 1: ‘Chromatic Clouds Surround’
   Nor’easter (New Albion, 2007)
3. Lubomyr Melnyk – Part 5
   KMH (Unseen Worlds, 1978/2007)
4. The Balustrade Ensemble – The Drowning Calm
   Capsules (Dynamophone, 2007)
5. Ketil Bjornstad – Floating
   Floating (EmArcy, 2005)
6. Pamelia Kurstin – Copingheaven
   Thinking Out Loud (Tzadik, 2007)
7. Tom Waits – Fawn
   Alice (Anti, 2002)

Stream playlist

Image credit: George Grantham Bain Collection (Library of Congress)

Modern times. It’s great when everything’s working the way it should be. But the more modern our technology is, the less reliable it seems to be. With every new technology the utopia gains a little. Computer problems make me want to listen to old timey music. So as we seem to have some technical issues right here at the motel (hence the temporary new layout), why not sit back and enjoy a little blues and country from bygone days?

Lately there have been some great issues of historic music. The Dust-to-Digital releases are not just great compilations but also real treasures for your record collection, often coming in luxurious and unique packaging like wooden boxes, cigar boxes and hardcover books. The Cherry Blossoms track is the odd one of the bunch here as it’s still new. They are a wonderful underground group of Nashville hobbyists who make the most infectious hillbilly boogie imaginable. This song comes from their 2007 debut album.

And if you want more of this, make sure to check out the magnificent Pre-War Blues blog.

1. Two Gospel Keys – I Don’t Feel at Home In This World Anymore
   I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore 1927-1948 (Mississippi, 2007)
2. Bob Coltman – Got To Get A Little More
   Fonotone Records 1956-1969 (Dust-to-Digital, 2005)
3. Orville Jenks – Sprinkle Coal Dust On My Grave
   Music Of Coal: Mining Songs From The Applachian Coalfields (Lonesome Pine Office on Youth, 2007)
4. Grayson County Railsplitters – Ain’t That Trouble In Mind
   The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of (Yazoo, 2006)
5. John Jacob Niles – The Mad Creed From The Gallows
   My Precarious Life In The Public Domain (Rev-Ola, 2006)
6. Carlos Ramos – Torre de Belem
   Victrola Favorites: Artifacts from Bygone Days (Dust-to-Digital, 2007)
7. Rocky Ridge Ramblers – Down Where The River Bends
   Fonotone Records 1956-1969 (Dust-to-Digital, 2005)
8. Crumb Brothers – Seat in the Kingdom
   Life is a Problem (Mississippi, 2007)
9. The Cherry Blossoms – Rockin Rocket Ship
   The Cherry Blossoms (Black Velvet Fuckere, 2007)

Stream playlist