who says boys

five-piece oxford pysch-pop band fixers are guys to look out for, bringing the beach boys into the 21st century.

rattling cage

get the new forest swords 7" 'rattling cage' here.

someday we'll all be free

miguel atwood-ferguson ensemble performing 'someday we'll all be free' live in los angeles at the grand performances, california plaza july 23rd 2010. free download here.



bilal (vocals)
flying lotus (laptop)
miguel atwood-ferguson (violin)
evan francis (flute)
dontae winslow (trumpet)
joey dosik (alto sax)
kamasi washington (tenor sax)
garrett smith (trombone)
rebekah raff (harp)
marcel camargo (guitar)
brandon coleman (keys)
stephen 'thundercat' bruner (bass)
chris 'daddy' dave (drums)
nikki campbell (percussion)

the outsiders are back

perhaps one of the most pleasantly suprising debut records to be released this year comes in the form of this brilliantly infectious funk/soul LP from kings go forth on luaka bop records. this 10-piece soul unit from milwaukee, wisconsin consist of seven players and three singers. this band have created their own sound from a broad palete of classic rhythm & blues, from mid-60s chicago to early-70s philadelphia, and those even more obscure. groove-heavy and horn-powered, 'the outsiders are back' cements its place in the exciting soul-revival.


kings go forth - fight with love

last chants

here's a track from the forthcoming sun araw EP out on woodist this october. this is the project of magic lantern's cameroon stallones which takes you down a distinct psych/dub/drone path of escapism.


sun araw - last chants

heritage

"hypnotic brass ensemble are one of a kind. graced with soul, funk, and spirituality these guys have captivated audiences worldwide. their music is a combination of all genres. with the undeniable drive of hip-hop, the freedom of rock and the melodic thread of R&B these guys are nothing short of unique.

all band members are the sons of legendary sun ra trumpeter phil cohran. the group began performing together as children (some as early as 3 years old). in 1999 they formed what is now known as the hypnotic brass ensemble and have performed or collaborated with some of the greatest musical stars of the last two decades. from mos def to maxwell, wu tang clan’s ghostface killah to UK superstar damon alburn, erykah badu to fela kuti’s drummer tony allen. if you don’t know these guys you’re missing out.

during one of their many stays in dublin with choicecuts, hypnotic decided to shack up in a studio located high in the dublin mountains to rehearse for a week and write new material. hypnotic and choicecuts had a bit of down time in between these sessions and with plenty of guinness and jameson in tow chose to rework some of their favourite records from other artists that have influenced them both.

hypnotic know their fans. they also know their fans know real music. the heritage EP released by choicecuts with hypnotic is a nod to that fact, a sprinkling of the hypnotic dust over some of the tunes that influenced the band and their musical direction over the course of their lives."

hypnotic brass ensemble - spottie (free download)

lloyd miller & the heliocentrics

"following their award-winning collaboration with ethio jazz godfather mulatu astatke (sunday times world music album of the year), pioneering UK collective the heliocentrics resurface alongside another fascinating jazz enigma, ethno-musicologist, jazz maestro and multi-instrumentalist, lloyd miller.

learning various instruments and immersing himself in new orleans jazz through his father, a professional clarinet player, lloyd miller first trained himself in the styles of george lewis and jimmy giuffre and cut his first dixieland jazz 78 rpm record in 1950. during the late ‘50s, his father landed a job in iran and miller began to develop a lifelong interest in persian and eastern music forms, learning to play a vast array of traditional ethnic instruments from across asia and the middle east.

he toured Europe heavily, basing himself in switzerland, belgium, sweden, germany (where he played with eddie harris and don ellis) and, most famously, in paris where he worked with oddball bandleader jef gilson, a phenomenon in french jazz during the early ‘60s. miller returned to the middle east during the ‘70s, landing his own TV show on NIRTV in tehran under the name kurosh ali khan. his show became a national fixture and ran for seven years.

miller has since been a vocal ambassador for preserving the traditions of many forms of wastern music. In recent years, his mid-‘60s album ‘oriental jazz’ has become a collector’s favourite and the UK’s jazzman label have issued a compilation, ‘a lifetime in oriental jazz’, covering work from across his career. the renewed interest in his music has spawned this new collaboration with the heliocentrics, a freeform mix of eastern arrangements, jazz and angular psychedelics and represents the heliocentrics’ most accomplished work to date".


lloyd miller & the heliocentrics - nava

compass

jamie lidell's latest album on warp, 'compass', is a kind of electronic funk/soul hybrid which doesn't particularly lend itself to pigeonholing. there have been many retro comparisons of this record, and perhaps rightfully so, likening some of the sounds to prince and stevie wonder, but the album's off the wall and more wacky nature is just as much comparable to beck - the album was actually recorded between beck's hudson studios in LA and feist's ranch. his voice is quite unique, especially in terms of being a white british soul singer, and ultimately the music is innovative. the track below captures the fun side of the record and the video is part of the 'take away show' with his band performing the track live in the streets of paris.


jamie lidell - enough's enough

spilling over every side

pretty lights, a colorado-based producer, has released the second EP of a 2010 trilogy - 'spilling over every side'. derek vincent smith stated in a description of the EP that he tried to incorportate different genres into his work, "transitioning between something pretty and organic to something heavy and electro". this record sounds pretty fresh, hitting us with a blend of hip-hop and soul samples, breakbeats, and an element of dubstep. you can get the EP for free here.


pretty lights - a million tomorrows

the shady daze

this band emerged as part of the garage/psych-rock scene of '60s chicago. USA records were prolific at this time, and the subsidiary destination records was set up to focus on music in the local area. both labels, headed by jim golden, put out classic after classic of mid-western garage-rock.


the shady daze - i'll make you pay

latin ala lee!

this record features the great peggy lee singing to a latin-styled musical backing. some of the tracks are classics from the great american songbook and broadway shows but peggy makes them her own, and with the latin style there are made even more distinctive. the rhythms, arranged and conducted by jack marhsall, are authentically afro-cuban and rarely watered down.


peggy lee - heart (from 'damn yankees')

ain't no sunshine

this reissue courtesy of now-again records picks out a lost dark soul/funk masterpeice from a classic high school funk band of the '70s. the equatics were hampton, virginia high school champions of pepsi's 'new sounds of 1972' challenge. 'doin it!!!' combines funk, soul, blues and psychedelic-pop to create some real beat-heavy tracks. make sure you check out the full liner notes and buy the record. below you will find the band's mournful cover of bill wither's 'ain't no sunshine' which is also available as a free download.


the equatics - ain't no sunshine

donut shop

these dilla tracks consist of previously unreleased instrumentals selected by j.rocc from the dilla archives and three original beats of dilla's production for mos def, q-tip, and busta rhymes. out of interest, the q-tip beat 'move' samples 'dancing machine' by the jackson 5.


01. safety dance
02. sycamore
03. bars & twists
04. history (mos instrumental)
05. move (tip instrumental)
06. you can’t hold a torch (busta instrumental)

download

history (mos instrumental)