Thursday, 4 March 2010
Thursday, 25 February 2010
Prince - The Very Best of Prince
Outsidaz - Night Life EP
EP from underground rap crew Outsidaz. Post-debut, pre-Royce Eminem used be affiliated with these lot if that makes a difference to anybody? No? Fair enough.
Contains at least one top quality 16 and there’s a fun size mars bar up for grabs if anyone can tell me which one I’m referring to. Ready? Go......
Tuesday, 23 February 2010
Trentemoller - The Trentemoller Chronicles
Various Artists - Badmeaningood Volume 2: Roots Manuva
Roots Manuva should do more compilation albums. This is brilliant.
If you don't agree then you're a massive racist. Fact.
Curtis Mayfield - Superfly (OST)
Listening to this album while pounding the mean streets of Camberwell lets me imagine I’m in a mid-70’s blaxploitation film. Occasionally I slide across the hood of a parked car and kung fu chop the nearest jive turkey in the neck. That's just how I'm living these days.
No but seriously this is dope.
Ultramagnetic MC's - Critical Beatdown
If something can be extremely classic, then this is it. So many great breakbeats it’ll make your head spin. Also, Kool Keith is The Prodigy’s favourite rapper. The internet taught me that.
Casual - Fear Itself
Debut album from Hieroglyphics member Casual.
Right, in my opinion, there are only a handful of albums that display this level of skill consistently throughout and all of them are better known than this one.
Start to finish this guy is on point and on this kind of form, could probably rap circles around your favourite rappers favourite rapper (Unless they're Nas, Andre 3K, Jay, Pun or Biggie. Or Em, or Ghostface, or Big L. Okay, maybe not, but on the strength of this album he deserved more praise from the lyrical/miracle/spiritual underground hip-hop nerds than he got.)
Plantlife - The Return of Jack Splash
Basically, this fella has listened to an awful lot of Prince and George Clinton records, which is no bad thing.
Electrofunk-soul type thing? Hella funky.
Les Rythmes Digitales - Darkdancer
Underrated album from that Jacques Lu Cont fella; he went on to produce for Madonna I think. Nobody’s perfect I suppose.
Download
Monday, 15 February 2010
Geto Boys - The Foundation & We Can't Be Stopped
A lot of hip-hop these days is labelled as ‘gangsta rap’. Well this group is the very definition of that term.
The Geto Boys (Scarface, Willie D & Bushwick Bill) were so gangsta that their most violent and psychotic member was a midget. This midget was so gangsta that he made his full size girlfriend shoot him in the face during a failed suicide attempt. If that wasn’t crazy enough, they then used a photo of him on a gurney in the hospital, post-shooting, swollen faced and blind in one eye, as their next album cover.
I wish I was making this shit up.
Download - We Can't Be Stopped
p.s. The Foundation is a great album.
Company Flow - Funcrusher Plus
Breakbeat Era - Ultra-Obscene
Late 90’s D&B. 'Bullitprooof' and 'Ultra-Obscene' were the shit when this first came out which, unfortunately, is over ten years ago now. Fuck I’m old.
Lee Fields & The Expressions - My World
Soul record that sounds like it was made 40 years ago when in fact it came out last year. Vintage yeah?
Styles P - The Ghost Sessions
Don’t know if this was a legit release or some fan boy compilation that the internet spat out but either way it’s a slice of grimy New York hip hop for your ears.
DJ Spinna - Intergalactic Soul
Once again can’t really be categorised other than in the aforementioned pigeon hole of niceness. Modern soul maybe? Yeah go on then.
Modern soul album.
D'Angelo - Brown Sugar
One of the few R&B albums that stands the test of time. Another plus point is that, to the best of my knowledge, D'Angelo never pissed on any underage girls and videotaped it.
D’Angelo: 1 – R.Kelly: 0
Ry Cooder - Paris, Texas (OST)
An entire album of acoustic slide guitar you say?
Yes, yes I do. There is some seriously beautiful, haunting music on this soundtrack. If you don’t believe me then check out the title track, ‘Paris, Texas’.
If you still don’t believe me then you’re wrong.