new NIN track

NIN- "the line begins to blur" leaked track from With Teeth


I had a major NIN phase in high school and look forward to seeing them again live. NIN is one of the most powerful live acts out there and had the same effect on me that Radiohead does. Here is a track from the forthcoming "With Teeth" album that was leaked out. Can't wait to hear the full album when it comes out.

Hello Stranger

Kaos- Hell Stranger (K7)

I have been streaming this album all week at work and I like it a lot. Daniel Wang and Erlend Oye are on the album and people were telling me it is like Metro Area with vocals so I knew I needed it. Click the link and you can listen to the entire album and also purchase it through mp3 downloads.

K7 says:

When you hear „Hello Stranger“ for the first time, you might think that Kaos is a new music group. All the ingredients that shape the sound of a band are here: Live drums, an electric bass, guitars, live percussions and keyboards. And, the voices of real singers.

But you only have to add the prefix „DJ“ to the name Kaos to realise what this is: the new album by the Berlin DJ Kaos. The legendary master of the wheels of steel, former member of Terranova and initiator of the infamous Ghost Cauldron project now returns as Kaos with his most mature solo effort to date.

To define ‘’Hello Stranger’’ as a typical DJ album would be wrong. The beats are groovy but not linear, the tunes are stretched but less tracks than proper songs. For the album, Kaos was looking for new challenges. Because sampling as we know it, is dead. This is especially the case for a producer like Kaos who has been working with sample based music for over a decade and for whom the collaboration with real musicians presented a new, exciting perspective. Kaos engaged various musician friends and singers. Names like Erlend Øye, Daniel Wang, Khan and Snax from Captain Comatose, Matt B. Safer from The Rapture, the performance artist Namosh, Nicole from Electrocute, Boy from Brazil, Eddy Cooper or Jason Friedman from the New York punk rockers The Boggs appear on the album.

For the recordings, the individual collaborators met with Kaos in his studio where they jammed (in the traditional sense) off of Kaos’ own rhythm and harmony structures. The vocals on the album were generated in a similar way: Kaos hummed a melody, language fragments were played around with and after a few tries a real song was born. Afterwards, Kaos arranged everything on his computer.

Musically, ‘’Hello Stranger’’ has a very versatile sound. However using average genre definitions is problematic. The sound of Kaos is somewhere between disco, New York white funk, Italo and rock. Kaos stated that „the album is a ‘good time album’, one that you can have fun with both at home on the couch, as well as in the club on the dancefloor“. „Hello Stranger“ is a proper Berlin album. Except for the two New Yorker guest musicians Matt B. Safer and Jason Friedman all the other artists involved call Berlin their home. The album presents an informed illustration of the current developments in today’s most exciting music-capital in the world.

Last but not least, the album elegantly reflects the sound that Kaos has been cultivating for years as a DJ. It is a sound that equally features the sound of yesterday and today, where the golden Glimmer Twins motto „Where The Past Presents The Future“ rules. Based on the solid conviction that music is a medium that can independently transcend all chronological and genre related definitions, what counts is simply the good vibe, the good groove and the uniqueness of sound.

All of this can be drawn from „Hello Stranger“. It´s DJ Kaos` own “Roots Music “ album which propagates “back to music“: far away from trends and clichés the only thing that counts is good music. The album´s title is based on a song by Marianne Faithfull, which she took from the legendary New Orleans icon Dr. John. Ms. Faithfull´s album was also an attempt to get „Back To The Roots“. Kaos has brilliantly mastered the cultivation of this principle on his new album.

Jeremy "Ayro" Ellis LIVE SET

Jeremy "AYRO" Ellis- Live Set (Streaming from brokenbeatradio.com)

I love this guy and he has a new album coming out on Ubiquity Records called, Lotus Blooms. I do not have it yet but am looking forward to picking it up. You may recall I posted about him in the past and hosted his note for note interpretation of a Herbie Hancock classic.
From Brokenbeatradio:
AYRO (LIVE) - June 28, 2004 This week the Federation and BrokeN'Beat radio bring you very hot live recording from May 7th at the Mission in NYC. Armed with an arsenal of electronics and keyboards, Ayro comes to bring it... all freestyle... without a net. A packed house got down to the electronic, the love, and the funk, the likes of which they will not soon forget. Apologies for the contagious mis-pronounciations of people's names that was going on that night. Ayro's live sets are legendary. They include shows at the Detroit Electronic Music festival in 2001 and 2003, playing with Jazzanova and Koop, headlining with Kyoto Jazz Massive in Tokyo, and rocking all-night block parties on the streets of Puerto Rico. He broke out worldwide as a solo artist in 2001 turning the heads of selectors such as Gilles Peterson, Dj Spinna, Jazzanova and countless others. His new album ElectronicLovefunk is a raw, experimental and eclectic fusion of soul, jazz and techno filled with sweet vocals and lush polyrhthyms. You can pick up this essential record at Dustygroove.com.

a proper downtempo album by a jamband

STS9- Artifact

"Tokyo (radio edit)"

I have featured many of the new-school, electronic style jambands on this site. Disco Biscuits, Lotus, Brothers Past, The New Deal, The Bays, The Egg, and more. Each of them has their own style and some have vocals which could lead into a 20 minute techno, house, drum and bass, or even a dub jam. Others play all instrumental live electronic music with the focus on their improvisation skills. Another band that I have liked for a while is Sound Tribe Sector Nine or STS9. This band has evolved a lot over the last few years and now has more of a "live downtempo" sound rather than only rocking instrumental jams. Now, they still are a jamband but they have been mixing it up and adding some new effects and techniques that I really like. They have been doing less improv, and more beat-oriented songs with the laptops. This is something that some of their older fans are not happy about because some of their jams do not rock as hard or peak like they may have in the past, however other people (like me) love the new direction and change.

First of all the drummer, Zach Velmer, is a MACHINE. In my opinion he is the leader of the band and he can bang out drum and bass beats that will make you think they are programmed. Maybe he is a robot, who knows, but I guarantee if you see them live he will blow your mind. The guitar player, bass player and keyboard player have all added laptops with programs like Reason 2.5 running which they use to add samples, loops, and other sounds which give the sound a more "electronic" feel. They have also played sets with an all midi electronic setup which is drums, keys, and laptops only and no guitar. They are going to be playing a "live pa" style set like this at the WMC along with LTJ Bukem and many other D'N'B artists one day and they are playing with Mark Farina another night.

You can stream and also download shows from archive.org and here is the link to a show where they played an all electronic set: 10/31/04

So this leads me to their best work yet which is their new studio album, "Artifact". The album has the same feel as any K+D, Tosca, Dzihan and Kamien release. Deep, melodic grooves with great effects on the live instruments they use. I am really, really impressed by this album and I am excited that this band put out an electronic dowtempo album this good. I think this release is as good as many of the downtempo albums that I love and use to DJ. This is one step closer to a fusion between the jamband fans and the clubbers. The track I posted is the radio edit and the album version is much longer.

Read more about STS9 HERE and check the tour dates because they are great live.

Old School Gems

THE BOX! Hip Hop Archive

Ok, I could easily have posted a couple mp3's of some old school Fat Boys if I wanted to. Or maybe hit you with some rare EPMD or live LL Cool J...shiiiit....I could have posted some classic battles from the 80's.

But

Rather than given you an appetizer I decided to take you to the Sbarro $3.99 ALL YOU CAN EAT!!! NAWMSAYIN? Today I received an email that literally made my day. It was a link to "The Box" which is an old school site filled with mp3's, videos, photos, and bio's with some of my favorite old school rappers. I may be a white kid who grew up in Wisconsin but I still am a certified old school junkie. I can still recite all of LL's "Radio", I know just about every line (including the lyrics to every song) of both Breakin' movies, and a friend and I once transcribed every line to each of the LL VS. Kool Moe Dee battle songs...and this was WAY before the OHHLA "Jack The Ripper" is on the site and I just listened to it 4 times in a row! I used to think if I could build a time machine to go back in time to see the concert of my choice I would see The Dead 5/8/77, or maybe Derek and The Dominos, or Grant Green Live at the Lighthouse. Well, now I think I would zip back to the early 80's and see the oldest of the old school like a Planet Rock party or maybe the first Def Jam tour with Run DMC, Beastie Boys, and crew.

CRUSHIN!

this ad rules

GREAT COMMERCIAL!

I will post later but just saw this great ad and thought I would share. His moves look like David Elsewhere's. Hopefully this will be on during the Super Bowl.