As a minor favour for the wonderful Kyri at R2 Records, Nike and radio producer Becky Jacobs I thought I’d just drop this podcast featuring Your Mum’s dearest, Kissey Asplund. It’s predominantly vox-pop, though guaranteed to enlighten of the young lady’s future manoeuvers alongside other avant-garde individuals.
Both the stunning ‘Silverlake’ and sombre ‘Snowfall’ are available to download by clicking —> here.
When the Air Max launched in 1987, it was a revolution. It became an instant classic, on and off the track.
Three years later this legacy led to the Air Max 90, which took its original concept literally to the max. The frame around the air was designed to add support but was brightly coloured to bring even more attention to the radical design of visible air. You couldn’t miss it.
Over time, the Air Max 90 evolved from a lightweight running shoe into original expressions of style on different playgrounds, at different latitudes. It was an energy that couldn’t have been predicted. The Air Max 90 eventually became an icon adapted by athletes, performers and artists.
The AM90 Sound is the documentary of this journey, a tribute to a true icon. Legendary photographer Shawn Mortensen traveled across Europe, intercepting (or following) the frequencies of eight young music talents who share the Air Max 90 attitude in a genuine and personal way. From Paris (Sefyu) to Berlin (F.R. + Rampa), from Rome (Rodion) to Stockholm (Kissey Asplund), London (Maniac), Barcelona (Golden Bug), Amsterdam (Shinedoe), up to Moscow (Mujuice): each city with a different style, voice and landscape: Each artist a different soundtrack.
In this AM90 Presents, Swedish signer and musician Kissey Asplund takes us on an audio tour of Stockholm, where we hear from collaborators, friends and even hear from Kissey’s dad! Kissey fills us in on the experimental vibe to her vocals and the motivations behind the ethereal musical collage of Neo Soul, Abstract Broken Beat, Jazz and Deep House that makes up the Kissey style. Plus, we get a guided tour around her bedroom studio and all the kit she used to build her AM90 dedicated track, ‘Silverlake’. Legendary portrait photographer, Shawn Mortensen was on hand to document the process in celluloid and presents his experience of the artist and the city from behind the lens in his ‘Snapshot’ feature.
Props to the aforementioned. And all/any uber-sexy Europeans.
Whispered to a couple o’ my close heads yesterday that I was intending to unveil a midweek world exclusive today.
I kid not.
This is a fresh-off-the-stove melting pot (not single-track, individual mp3s) masterminded by tastemaker Jay Scarlett of the internationally renowned Beat Dimensions movement: champions of the bold, brazen, progressive and fearless future of music.
Those of you who copped Jay and Cinnaman’s Beat Dimensions Vol. 1 courtesy of us will know what to anticipate: a seamless selection of spacey, bugged out, glitched-up, forehead-knockin’, ultramodern Soul, Hip-Hop, Dubstep, Grime and other Electronic hybrids alongside classic, organic vibes. This man has his fingers on the pulse of these evolving genres (if one can even box them like that which I doubt). You may want to listen in, in dread of being left behind…
This compilation was recently completed in private conjunction with Reebok (and otherwise may not have seen the light of day) though I’m notified it’s getting pushed for a wider drop later this month. Disc jockeys, promoters, bloggites, audiophiles, forum dwellers, honour Your Mum: get this out there as far as possible, make the world pay attention to that next generation.
Props going out to my source for the fantastic voyage.
She really, really, delivered. The way Epps aerially veers between spiritualist vocalism, outer-body poetics, convulsing grooves and a paranormal beat cavity with boom-bap for a terrestrial heartbeat (with Apex, Amdex, Flying Lotus, S1, Muhsinah, Everett James, Nick Speed and Slugabed all behind the boards). Avant Garde Soul comes a step closer to it’s requiem for a future.
‘Floatin’ is already one of the top 5 songs of the year, if I find a single person contradicting that I’ll stab their brain with their nose-bone like Ballerina P. The rest of the album is now joining the higher tier of my (obsessive compulsive) mental ranking system.
It’s no secret why Lib runs with this girl- she’s on a higher plain.
“Passin’ clouds passin’ you passin’ me by,
Passionately we can be so high,
Heavens are over the sea,
Gravity can’t hold us down, baby…”
[IF YOU WANT THE ABOVE LINK/S TAKEN DOWN, E-MAIL US DIRECTLY ON ibootleggedyourmum@gmail.com & IT WILL BE DONE AS SOON AS REQUEST IS SEEN.]
1. Eppisode (Prod. by Slugabed) 2. The Awakening
3. OM (Prod. by Muhsinah)
4. Addicted (Prod. by Amdex)
5. Heaven (Prod. by S1) 6. Cosmik Dust (Prod. by Flying Lotus) 7. Floatin
8. Floatin (reprise) 9. Who Knows (Prod. by Nick Speed)
10. Mothership
11. 00:00
My favourite tracks highlighted in Bold Red above.
Adorable Miss. Asplund is one of my breakthrough artists of 2008 with her futuristic Soul debut ‘Plethora’ (shouts to my duke DJ Cavalry for puttin’ me on that earlier this year, and all the heads I had hooked on it consequential to that). Not sure why I have to keep repeating, “don’t sleep on the Swedes”.
The new single ‘Silverlake’ and it’s B-side ‘Snowfall’ are produced by Dorian Concept (with artwork from Piet Parra) exclusively for Nike’s AM90 launch campaign, and they’re both quite simply spellbinding. It excites me to hear artists challenging the status quo as Kissey does. It’s like the rebirth of Trip-Hop’s most intoxicating aspects.
Respects to Nike for having the balls (product placement pun intended) to put this ill sista on. It’s a wise move if they’re looking to tap into a market of progressive music-orientated fashionistas.
Drops today Oct 22nd as a limited 12″ vinyl, and digitally November 3rd.
I’ve just been sent over this track by gracious Geek Escort (Infinite Love right back at you).
It’s a brand new Little Dragon song done exclusively for a new Cartier ad campaign.
More quirky, bouncing Euro-Soultronica with a chilled Nu Jazz nonchalantness.
Their self-titled debut album was one of the most gradually addictive (general consensus from all the heads I’ve put onto it) and perhaps overlooked of 2007. I’ve maintained that they could easily break mainstream, so I suggest you jump on this immediately before a band of Twiggy-clad trendies from Hoxton and Brick Lane claim ownership of your Smörgåsbord.
And don’t sleep on the Swedes, they’re rising again fast.
Eyes wanting closure, head begging rest; yet duty calls and bloody blogging prevails.
I’m lying in bed right now having this soaring sensory experience bumping Californian electronic/experimental Hip-Hop producer Afta-1’s debut instrumental LP with my headphones fully engaged. In comparison to the fresh hoards of “Glitch-Hop” aspirants, this stands out as one of the most Soulful palettes I’ve heard with heavier emphasis on melody and a less mechanized perversion of the groove. Still there’s tingles, twitches, head-nodders, euthermic bass and even an industrial sensuality if there can be such a thing.
In short, these compositions flow seamlessly like a volcanic spring oozing blunt-scented perfume which forms an estuary around your dome that you can backstroke in. And if analogies aren’t your bag, then lie down and just play the damn thing with the lights off.
Whilst I am impatiently still awaiting acquisition of prog-soul songtress Stacy Epps new LP ‘The Awakening’, with Dilla, Lib and even Jneiro Jarel alias Dr. WhoDat on the boards I’ll gladly make do with THIS dunny…
01. Blessing (Prod. Apex) 02. Skin Play ft. Madlib (Prod. J-Dilla)
03. 222 (Hit Me) ft. Muhsinah 04. Arms ft. Bilal Salaam (Prod. Madlib)
05. Loose Change (Prod. Pudgemcee) 06. Down Falling (Prod. Madlib)
07. Rhyme Cycle ft. Panama Black, Doodlebug, & Jawwaad (Prod. Dr. WhoDat)
08. Smoky Mirrors (Prod. Apex)
09. Muthaland (Prod. Madlib)
10. Miuzik (Prod. Stacy Epps)
11. Peace (Prod. Apex)
My stand-out tracks highlighted in Bold Red above.
Hurrah bitches! Batting for the home team, I can proudly advocate vocalist/producer Steve Spacek as a United Kingdom legend: an original pre & post-millenial pioneer of electronic and progressive Soul music (‘Soultronica’ I insist, vainly re-enforcing usage).
Alongside Edmund Cavill (Ed Spacek) and Morgan Zarate (Morgan Spacek) he formed the groundbreaking electro-soul band Spacek: once hailed as “the Radiohead of Soul”. The experimentalism of backbone Steve Spacek himself implanted the seeds of soulful expansion and influenced dozens of space-funk and futurebeat musicians currently astro-rockin’ our pods and laptops right now… in hindsight the groups LPs ‘Curvatia’ (2001) and ‘Vintage Hi-Tech’ (2003) were the definition of what one would discern as ahead of the times.
The new project is Black Pocket: an experi-instru-mental Blacktronic soul hodgepodge of exclusive re-interpretations for Exit Records back catalogue of underground (notably Drum n’ Bass) classics. Steve yet again raises another set of (Blighty) V fingers to the notion of boundaries/limitations within black music. I preferred his 2005 solo ‘Spaceshift’, but this is a decent, relaxed, self-assured effort from the statesman that grows on the listener given the right ambience. Respect to sir, though I would have preferred a great deal more of his honeyed Mayfield-styled vocal (present only on cyber-sexy ‘You’re A Sta’) all over this to really complete the hallucinatory vision presented.
01. For Real
02. Mountain
03. Juiced
04. Field 05. You’re A Sta
06. Sta Simonez
07. Sta Simone
08. Other Magic 09. Amplifly
10. Bartin Groove
11. Hangin St
12. Vandlance 13. Al Softly
My stand-out tracks highlighted in Bold Red above.
Your Mum had this up a month ago via the blockbuster Future Sounds of Soul Music post so ‘fore you diagnose me a senile bugger, understand the EP was re-released in the States yesterday with 2 additional bonus cuts, hence a vital re-up.
I’ve been trying to tell people for months, and I’m back at it again- however due to the lethargic haziness of recent sleep deprivation one is currently at his least comprehensive, so, yeah…
Janelle Monae is the future of your goddamn world. A bold, brilliant, bonafide superstar creature. Recognise.
And I’m esoterically in love with her, with plans to pro-create. Hol’ tight forthcoming babymother.
[IF YOU WANT THE ABOVE LINK TAKEN DOWN, E-MAIL US DIRECTLY ON ibootleggedyourmum@gmail.com & IT WILL BE DONE AS SOON AS REQUEST IS SEEN.]
01. March Of The Wolfmasters
02. Violet Stars Happy Hunting! 03. Many Moons
04. Cybertronic Purgatory
05. Sincerely, Jane
06. Smile (Bonus)
07. Mr. President (Bonus)
My stand-out tracks highlighted in Bold Red above.
[IF YOU WANT THE ABOVE LINK TAKEN DOWN, E-MAIL US DIRECTLY ON ibootleggedyourmum@gmail.com & IT WILL BE DONE AS SOON AS REQUEST IS SEEN.]
1. Bullion- Get Familiar
2. Sunburst Band- Turn It Out 3. Katalyst feat. Steve Spacek- How Bout Us
4. DJ Day- Find A Place to Go 5. Jukes- Something Important 6. Stacy Epps – Floatin
7. Rozzi Dame- Morning Light 8. Yaw- Where Would You Be
9. Emantive feat. Ahu- Turn Your Lights On 10. The Invisables- Spiral
11. Arun Ghosh- Aurora 12. Charlie Dark & Roger Robinson- Prayers For Angry Young Men
13. Keneth Bager- Fragment One (And I Kept Hearing)
My stand-out tracks highlighted in Bold Red above.
I’ve been sitting on this shit for a hot, cosmic minute.
Washington DC newcomer Olivier Day Soul, that man, is a sexual beast with a lightsabre microphone caught in his paw; he howls with lunatic longing over warped synthesisers like the baroque love-child of P-Funk in its hallucinatory prime and subatomic soul of the nearby future.
The debut album dazzles with fantastic voyages into intergalactic instrumentals and sci-fi songwriting clearly penned in the haze of ODS’ own reverie. Myself I can’t quite testify that Earth girls are easy, but I’ll take the bloke’s word for it from what’s depicted on the record.
The contour that separates Olivier from his peers in the sphere of contemporary Soul is the inspired, rainbow-decorated palette he’s obtained from touring Europe (in particular the UK) and forming alliances with space-age Scot beatsmith Hudson Mohawk- a wise ploy since I’ve proposed before Hud-Mo’s work signifies the future territory of where (that allegedly dead donkey) UK Hip-Hop/’Urban’ needs to travel if it is to transcend this epoch and regain consciousness. I’ve heard the bulk of production here was handled by Planet Mohawk, fashioning a psychedelic progeny of funk, electronica and new wave; their chemistry fuses and throbs throughout the record, especially on the exceptional dancefloor cuts ‘Spaceship’ and ‘Dance’.
For personal/ethical reasons, I’m not going to provide the full download link for the album. Instead, I’ll opt for an alternative system I’ve been planning to incorporate on the blog for some time. It’s simple: I’m going to take my 3 favourite joints from the LP, wrap them up in a pretty likkle .rar folder and upload them for your download gluttony with the successive aim to inspire you to buy the rest of record from one of the many fine retailers it’s currently available at (link down below). Sir Day Soul deserves your dollars and dineros.
Worth purchasing alone just to hear Olivier squeal, “I’m bout to lose my maaaaaaaarbles” on the intro into track 12. Doing wonders for transatlantic relations.
Tokyo-born, Berlin-based producer & turntabilist’s sophomore LP full of faraway grooves and fertile, unprocessed vibrations oozing underneath a fantastic support cast like my mans Kev Brown, Oh No, Aloe Blacc and Ta’Raach… exceedingly recommended listening.
01. Intro
02. Sugar Hill feat. Om’Mas (from SA-RA Creative Partners)
03. Love And Sex
04. Still Significant feat. Kev Brown
05. 0804-005 06. Right Here feat. Oh No 07. Morioka Sunset (JS Love)
08. Night Will Fall
09. Interlude 10. Try feat. Aloe Blacc
11. Let’s Do It
12. Lovelude feat. Ta’Raach 13. Get down feat. Ta’Raach
14. No te puedo ver feat. Laura Lopez Castro
15. Y.W.A.G.D 16. cp2sk feat. Christian Prommer
17. Playground
18. Outro
My stand-out tracks highlighted in Bold Red above.
More and more dense, psychadelic, cerebellum-scrambling Electronic Hip-Hop/Glitch-Hop/Future-Beats to make you excrete in your astronaut pants. And this compilation is from 2007 aswell (hol’ tight my duke Drum@tix for helping me attain this rare find). Sounds of things to come my people…
[IF YOU WANT THE ABOVE LINK TAKEN DOWN, E-MAIL US DIRECTLY ON ibootleggedyourmum@gmail.com & IT WILL BE DONE AS SOON AS REQUEST IS SEEN.]
1. Dimlite & Ill Dubio- Searching It
2. J Todd- Night 3. ACID – Up Hygh
4. Mweslee- Un Joder Suave
5. Pursuit Grooves- Push Up
6. Morgan Spaceck- Dabz Beat 7. Hudson Mohawke- Trace
8. Cinnaman- Parker 9. Dyno- Reign
10. Byron Onra- Cosmic Travelling
11. Tom Trago- Fluogreen Legged Gangster 12. Hearin’ Aid- Figz 13. FlyamSam (Flying Lotus + Samiyam)- Green Tea Power
14. Simon Muschinsky- Activate 15. Black Pocket- Road 16. VeeBeeO- No More
17. Super Smoky Soul- Smoke Collage 18. Mike Tibbert- Sky Blue
19. Slumgullion- Castlevania
20. Aardvark- Nose
21. The Boogie- Hoerenjong
22. Sepalot- The Measured Amount 23. Jay Scarlett- Love Music
My stand-out tracks highlighted in Bold Red above.
And she foams at the waist for that next level Hip-Hop shit too. Where snares crunch, spacial symphonies seperate cranium from collar, and there’s an anomalous glitch in the beat-matrix.
Observe a post-Sun-Ra, post-Dilla, post-Madlib, post-apocalyptic generation bursting through the seminal underground like babies with electronic umbilical chords…
I made this shit. Handpicked. Precision selected. Aurally organised. No whacky mix n’ blend bollocks, partially because my turntable skills leave much to be desired, but atleast I can select(ah) like a polyphonic dictator. This bevy comprises of joints under-the-radar over the last 3 years as the sound’s been evolving: serious gems. For greater expansion I suggest you refer to my post prior to this which has some key LP releases (thus songs which are not featured here and vice versa).
This is a free, individual, track-by-track mp3 selection (18 to be precise which should just about fit onto an 80 minute disc) all wrapped up sweetly in a .rar folder. Pinch my cheeks and rub talcum into the batty, I know I’m good to you.
Accept this as a proverbial Soultronica godsend of what thou newbies + zealots alike should be rockin’ in your iPods, your cassette decks, your CD walkmans, your houses, your correctional facilities, your Nissan Micras and your spaceships. Show some modesty you say? Piss off. Listen to this…
My 5 year old half-brother made this cover-art on paint, hol’ tight little man, I owe you royalties.
1. Flying Lotus ft. Andreya Triana – Tea Leaf Dancer
2. Sa-Ra – Second Time Around
3. Jneiro Jarel ft. Rocque Wun – Breathin’
4. Carol Riddick – I Like The Way It Feels
5. Van Hunt – The Lowest 1 Of My Desires
6. Victor Duplaix – In The Middle Of You
7. Peter Hadar – Sleeping Pills
8. Ta’raach & The Lovelutions – Liberation’s Lullabye
9. Kevin Michael – Liquid Lava Love
10. Green Tea – Soul Connection
11. Res – U Know What (Demo)
12. Wayna ft. Muhsinah – Billy Club
13. Erykah Badu – Twinkle
14. Crossrhodes (Raheem DeVaughn + Wes Felton) ft. Sy Smith – 3 Sides
15. Natalie Gardiner – Can’t Quit You Now
16. FLYamSAM (Flying Lotus + SamiYam) – The Offbeat
17. Sam Sparro – Cottonmouth
18. Bilal ft. Sa-Ra – Hollywood
Fantasticunt mixtape rating:
10.5 mums out of 10
[This is a free promotional release- appreciate free shit.]
Let your speakers ripple on the emerging influx of spacey, forward-thinking, progressive, slightly off-kilter, bugged-out, psychadelic, acid-Rn’B, electro-funk, soul music… or as I sometimes refer to it, Soultronica.
After a stagnant decline in the last decade (starting off tenaciously with the emerging Neo-Soul trend in the late 90s which by now seems to have deteriorated), you’ll be forced admit it’s a very exciting time for Black music. As some artists of that era struggle to maintain an athletic relevance (e.g. Musiq’s corny arse, lyrically Lloyd/R. Kelly’esque new Crunk-n’-B single ‘Radio‘ which complete with Atlanta strip-club synths, is perchance an un-wise career move as it wreaks of commercial desperation and could severely repel his unanimous core fanbase); others such as Erykah Badu embrace the offspring of this Rainbow Child generation by injecting the sound of these seeds into her latest LP alongside her own vintage sonance (i.e. ‘My People’, ‘Twinkle’, ‘Master Teacher’).
I also believe this sound I’m trying to characterize lies affectionately somewhere between…
Point A:
A Funk come New Wave god of ‘the Minneapolis sound’.
&
Point B:
A pioneering Hip-Hop prophet of ‘the Detroit sound’.
Maybe also what we’re seeing is greater than the categorization of soul music itself- as a growing number of Black artists refuse to be pigeonholed in an effort to reject mainstream mundanity and draw back the eclectic, imaginative light under which many great Black musicians have been illuminated: Chuck Berry, Jimi Hendrix, Funkadelic, George Clinton, Parliament, Prince, Joan Armatrading, Tracey Chapman, Tina Turner and most recently even Outkast to name but a few of the conspicuous ones.
The next wave is here- are you listening? (Don’t turn around in 2 years and act like I didn’t tell you so).
-J*Davey – Beauty In Distortion/Land of The Lost [2008]
As a primary example of this burgeoning genre, I assure you the following debut offering by percussive LA duo J*Davey is the most fearless and exciting soul(tronica) album of 2008; unafraid to fortify influences that suggest a hybrid of the Eurythmics crossbred with J-Dilla and even acclimatize some of these sonics to contemporary pop music (as illustrated on ‘Mister Mister’) and yet build lush, magnetic soundscapes such as ‘Enterception’ that make your heart float on a bed of protons, whilst not forgetting to emphasise one of groups key strengths- Miss Jack Davey’s labia dripping sensuality- via ‘No More’.
I believe out of any Soultronica act that has modish appeal to crack the mainstream, it could very well be J*Davey. But will those fucking record label pussies market/promote this shit right (keeping in mind they are signed to a major like Warner)? Well both Beauty In Distortion and Land of The Lost had been individually floating around the bootleg circut for the last year (I been bumpin’ since late ’07) and were only officially released this month as a double-disc package, so perhaps it’s too late for this record to seize the industry though a potential sophmore effort (no news yet) could definitely spell a landmark breakthrough. Time will tell.
Also, on a slightly less theoretical note… Jack Davey herself (bar the androgynous name) is so sexy it actually hurts my face.
Beauty In Distortion Tracklist
01. Divisions Of Joy 02. Mr. Mister
03. Touch It
04. Private Parts 05. No More
06. Gangsta
07. Might As Well
08. Cowboys & Indians
09. Enterception (originally entitled ‘Beat (Tell You Goodbye)’
10. Mr. Mister (Remix)
Land of The Lost Tracklist
01 Hi’s & Lo’s
02 Just Because 03 Lil Big Heads (co-produced by ?uestlove of The Roots)
04 Red Light (produced by J-Dilla)
05 Hi Sun 06 Dirty Love
07 Slooow
08 Thick Interlude
09 sLAyer
10 Lalaland 11 Dancehall
12 Mr. Mister (Cock Out Remix)
13 Venus 2 Mars
14 Valley of Love
15 Let It Bleed
My stand-out tracks highlighted in Bold Red above and the following tracklists below.
01. Still The Baddest (Intro) 02. Beam Me Up 03. Caos
04. You & I
05. Entrapped
06. Fuss’N’Fight 07. Hit Me With Medication 08. 6am
09. Another Glass 10. Syntax Error
11. Phone Call
12. Work It Out
13. With You
14. I’m Out!!!
1. Conflict (This Is Your Brain On Drugs)
2. Fly Away With Me
3. The Things I Do 4. Overthought feat. Bilal Salaam
5. The Art Of You 6. Spies
7. Ain’t Nobody’s Bizness 8. Reach Down In Your Soul feat. Wes Felton
9. B-Side Love Affair
10. Would All The People From Compton Please Leave?
11. Star
01. Twice
02. Turn Left
03. No Love 04. Recommendation
05. Constant Suprises 06. Forever
07. After The Rain
08. Place To Belong 09. Stormy Weather
10. Test
11. Wink
12. Scribbled Paper
-G & D (Georgia Anne Muldrow & Dudley Perkins) – The Message Uni Versa [2007]
1. Ye Olde Skit
2. GodUnit
3. On One 4. One
5. Peace Of Mind
6. Time
7. Found
8. U 9. All 4 U
10. Ye Olde Skit Too
11. Good Mornin Amerikkka
12. P.I.F.O.T.P.H. 34
13. War Drums
14. Stomp, The
15. Poppa’s Song
16. MGD – (with M.E.D.) 17. Stronger
18. Ye Last Olde Skit
19. Message, The
20. Uncle Dudley’s Outro
01. Provider
02. Never Again
03. Need Love
04. Cool Weirdos Interlude
05. Thunder
06. U Dont Love Me
07. Please! 08. Xplosive
09. Provider 2
10. First Sight
11. Marvin
12. Deep in Love
I Bootlegged Your Mum 