A Couple Items of Interest + More New Sh*t

There’s more and more new stuff stacking up as the year winds down, hopefully things will be a little more evenly distributed next year! Before I move on to talking about these records, I want to give a shout out to my man Carleton and his Mass Communications class. I sat on a panel of local Pittsburgh people involved in different mediums of communication yesterday for the class’ final get together. It was funny to be sitting next to reputable journalists and whatnot, but I had a good time discussing some issues with them and the kids in the class! Also, for those deejays out there in ISM-land, our boys over at Little White Earbuds are having a “podcast competition” that has 3 more days for accepting submissions. I know we’ve got some talented people just amongst the usual commenters here, it would be fun to see one of you guys win! One more thing to flag for the ISM-faithful, a nice little interview with Kyle Hall over at our man Kuri’s Energy Flash blog, highly reccomended.

Moving on to the music, pictured above is the new EP by Dam Funk on Stone’s Throw. Despite the “Rhythm Trax” title, these are not just bare bones drum tracks (though that would have been welcome by me as well!). Instead, these 8 tracks are fully realised electro boogie instrumentals, but with a modern stuttered beat. Varying between slow jams and uptempo dancefloor cuts, there’s something on here for a variety of sets, no matter if you play techno, electro, soul, or disco. I believe Mr. Funk still has a full length release in the works for early ’09 as well, we’ll be looking out for that one as well.

Larry Heard also came through recently with a very 80’s electro influenced joint on his new 12″ on Alleviated/Black Market (through whom he issued many of his mid-90’s classics). Definitely not his usual deep house sound, “25 Years From Alpha” is one for the techno crossover crowd with its epic spaced out synth work. You can feel a little italo, a little Kraftwerk, and a little new wave in the mix, helping show why Chicago was so influential to Detroit at the dawn of techno music. Larry Heard is truly a master of electronic music.

Rahaan, another Chicago native, finally dropped his excellent edit of Timmy Thomas’ “Why Can’t We Live Together” on Still Music, taking the early drum machine track and extending it to the point of hypnosis, tossing in haunting bits of organ and vocal to keep it funky. Ron Trent also called Chicago his home, and his newest 12″ is yet another ridiculously ill house joint. Just at the title promises, “Jazz Funk Freedom” takes the sounds of 70’s CTI releases and corrals them onto his trademark deep beats.

Checking in with our Detroit brothers, I have to echo Kenny’s praise for Theo’s newest track “Chemistry”. This is the cut that was playing near the end of the Adidas film thing a few months back, and it sounds even more amazing in full. It would have been tough for Theo to drop a release better than “Love Triumphant” this year, but he went ahead and did it. Amazing. ISM cohort Scott Ferguson has a new one with Marvin Belton on Deep Explorer called “I Am Here (Piano Mix)” which is a wonderfully warm deep house groove. You gotta let this one play through the breakdown though, so you can get to the crazy piano bits that have a bit of that late 80’s NYC deep house feel. Baaz turns in a good effort as well, the other two cuts are also nice making for a strong overall release.

Going back to Stone’s Throw for a moment, the new limited edition heart shaped red vinyl 7″ of Mayer Hawthorne & The County’s “Just Ain’t Gonna Work Out” is definitely in track of the year contention for me. Combining 60’s soul vocals with a banging hiphop beat, this is what chart pop should sound like and for me it’s the best pop song since Gnarls Barkley dropped “Crazy”. My only complaint is its length, I want it to go on and on! This is already getting heavy play in Pittsburgh and people definitely react to it! On a similar tip, the Misled Children LP “Peoples Market” is really beautiful hiphop informed funk music played and recorded on vintage equipment. Their new album “The Misled Children Meet Odean Pope” adds some melodica and horn to the mix which works out quite well.

On the digging tip, here are some recent highlights:

Ike Yard – Night After Night: Noisy rhythmic new wave type craziness that you can dance to!

Janet Jackson – R&B Junkie: Dope dance track that is the source of the sample in Mark E’s “R&B Drunkie”.

Midnight Express – Danger Zone: Not really a dig as this was a recent re-issue that my man found for me up in NYC, but the new 12″ remix is the hot 80’s boogie business.

Yusef Lateef – Detroit Latitude 42° 30′ Longitude 83°: Awesome soul jazz with Bernard Purdie on drums. I liked the jams I had heard from this before finally scoring a mint original, but the whole album is outstanding and is now one of my favorite jazz albums.

John Coltrane Featuring Pharoah Sanders – Live In Seattle: Awesome spaced out live set of free jazz by two of the best to ever do the damn thing.

King Errisson – L.A. Bound: Nice disco LP featuring the great “Disco Congo”.