Kimarr is a dj and a musician hailing from Helsinki, Finland. He and Dj Q-Soul also host their own show every other Friday at Bassoradio, Finnish radiostation concentrating on urban and electronic music. Pose It Up #2 -mix is the sequel to Kimarr's first Pose It Up- mixtape which came out in March. Number two follows the same established style with bit more rapid and rougher pacing, but maintains the delicateness of its predecessor. This mix was made with the same gear as the firstone, Technics 1200's, cd deck and Kaoss Pad.
Tracklist:
Slim Thug – Diamonds (Instrumental)
Scotty B & King Tut – The Almighty Unruly Simon Joint
Uffie – Hot Chick (Mr. Oizo Bonus Beat)
CSS – Let's Make Love And Listen To Death From Above (Diplo Remix)
LCD Soundsystem – North American Scum
Christopher & Raphael – Just Popper (Shinichi Osawa Distortion Disco Edit)
Wiley – Wot Do U Call It? (Instrumental Igloo)
Lil' Jon – Act A Fool (Acapella)
Junior Boys – The Equalizer
Klaxons – Gravity's Rainbow (Van She Remix)
Curtis Vodka – Bollymore
Curtis Vodka – Diamonds & Cream
Daft Punk – Human After All
UFO! – Let Me
Kate Bush – Running Up That Hill
Purple Crush – Running Up That Hill
Deee-Lite – What Is Love
F.R. David vs. Gwen Stefani – Holla Back Don't Come Easy
Back again is 'Old rap Wednesdays. In this special, 'Late homework / Sorry it's almost Friday edition'.
Audio Two is Milk D. and DJ Gizmo. Rapper and DJ, respectively. Brothers in music and in real life (or maybe half-brothers).
Audio Two had their run between 1985-1992 releasing three LP albums, with slowly ebbing success. They began their career with the (impossible to find) 1985 12" single titled, 'A Christmas Rhyme' on MCM records, but the group really emerged in 1987 on their major-label (First Priority Records) debut single 'Make It Funky' with the incredible and classic b-side 'Top Billin' which eclipsed the a-side and everything that followed, and still remains as their signature track. 'Top Billin' will be the primary focus of this week's post. Enjoy the original:
Now I'll say something really journalist-y like, the 'Go Brooklyn!' vocal sample looped in the instrumental is so quintessentially late 80s BKLYN. Or so my expertise would lead me to believe—considering I was in, like, 3rd grade and living in LA in 1987.
The popularity of the B-side lead to several remixes, like this remix from a 1988, 'Top Billin' promo 12" (pardon the quality):
The group ended in 1992 because of poor record sales of their third album, 1992's 'First Dead Indian'—Undoubtedly when the west coast ushered in 'Dre Day', many of the of the more light-hearted pioneers, like Audio Two suddenly found themselves in the dark.
However, the break up of Audio Two wasn't the end all. Milk D released one album as a solo artist in 1994. Rick Rubin was a fan and put Milk D. on as one of his early artists on his American Records label. Milk D. dropped the D. and titled his record, 'Never Dated'. The album was a flop, with very few record sales. And those sales were mostly among hardcore Beastie Boys fans, because of Milk's tie to the Beasties and their collaboration track, 'Spam' which features two of the three Beastie Boys, with Adrock on the mic and Mike D on drums:
Audio Two has never lost relevance. Perhaps most people have heard Audio Two through a proxy, in the form of the Notiorous B.I.G.'s 1994 debut album, Ready to Die. This 'new' Brooklyn MC was obviously influenced by the west coast gangsta rap sound and his 1994 debut record was decidedly more gangster than his Audio Two forefathers. Still, on the intro track, which is a skit intended to sum up B.I.G.'s life up until that point, you'll hear Audio Two's 'Top Billlin' play for nearly a minute underneath the skit's dialogue.
For Biggie, 'Top Billin' is the one song chosen to represent the sound of the late 80s (along with Curtis Mayfield's I'm Your Pusher Man representing 70s, Sugarhill Gang's 'Rapper's Delight' representing early 80s, and Snoop Doggy Dogg's 'The Shizint' representing the early 90s). I find this interesting because the cultural significance of 'Ready to Die' and the impact it had, and how that record payed homage to Audio Two and other (dare I say) prolific artists that came before him in such a direct way (as literally playing their songs on his album). Does 'Top Billin' represent the late-80s sound perfectly? I think it does.
And it doesn't end there! Top Billin' lives on 20 years later in Uffie's 'Pop the Glock' (produced by Mr. Oizo) which borrows heavily from 'Top Billin'. If you didn't notice by now, act like you know! Uffie para-phrases, copies entire lyrics, borrows concepts and audio samples from 'Top Billin':
Now you're up on Audio Two! I'll end this on one last trivial-pursuit-80s-rap-edition fact: Milk D. is the older brother of MC Lyte, who emerged as a solo artist after the success of her brothers classic single, but went on to even greater hip-hop celebrity.
You can find Audio Two's first album, 'What More Can I Say' on Amazon due to a post-millennium re-release. All other records are harder to locate, and your best/only avenues would be secondary markets like eBay or Amazon affiliates.
[p.s. I know this post was half referential college shit drawing links between stuff and other stuff. Oops. Sorry for making you learn in yr freetime.]
You know the deal. Swedish brother & sister duo The Knife produce eerie beats with Karin's even eerie vocals. Fresh new remixes of 'Marble House' which is off their 'Silent Shout' album.
The Franz Ferdinand boys have been churning out the covers on lately. Check out this new one, their rendition of LCD Soundsystem's 'All My Friends'. And we've thrown in their cover of Gwen Stefani's 'What You Waiting For', for good measure.
Aside from making partygoers panties melt with his perfectly blended mixes, DFX also produces part time under the name 'Robot Noize'. Here's one of his new tracks to feed to your ipod.
Sally Shapiro is a modern italo disco project consisting of a female singer (whose real name remains a secret) and the composer and producer Johan Agebjörn, both from Gothenburg, Sweden. Their debut maxi-single "I'll be by your side" has been released on the Austrian Diskokaine label. Gentle synthpop & ghosting vocals which will make all your nightmares go away.
My vote for best American festival goes to Goldenvoice's consistently good Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival going on this weekend. Missingtoof will be dancing in the desert for three days! If you're headed there too, I'm sure you're equally excited about what you're going to be able to see and stressed out about all the stuff you're undoubtedly going to have to miss… Talk about tough decisions! Here's the breakdown of what's happening in Indio, California this weekend:
The lineup is overwhelming (maybe the scheduler can help?)! Björk/Soulwax/Ed Banger/Etcetera/Etcetera/Amazing/Amazing—all that aside, the singularly most hyped act this year has been the planned reunion of Rage Against the Machine, after a 7 year break-up. Last time I caught these guys play it was riot, like, literally! They did a free protest show (supported by Ozomatli with Cut Chemist still intact) against the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in downtown Los Angeles during the 2000 Election campaign. The concert was staged right outside the convention in an enclosed 'protest area' and that scene ended in a small-scale riot with cops on armored horses and rubber bullets and the whole fun bit! Let's see if we can outdo ourselves this time!
If you prefer your RATM mashed-up and glitch'd-down, try and find this bastardized collection of MP3s titled enRAGEd. Maybe someone over that this originating site will bring it back to life someday if we pester them! I've heard a few tracks and they're very IDM-ish.
If you need a deeper primer on Coachella 2007 artists, try these Missingtoof tags for downloadable audible goodies from the archive.
Okay, I'll admit, I was a little up in arms over Glass Candy's new musical direction at first. I mean, having seen them in one of their early incarnations, the new stuff seemed to pale in comparison. I thought to myself, where's the heat? Where was the passion? Where's Ida No's high pitched shrill that I loved so much. But now thanks to a few other bloggers I have seen the light and beauty of the new Glass Candy & am a card carrying fanatic. If you have not yet heard the gospel & the good news of all the Glass Candy has to offer you, let me preach.
Glass Candy is currently on tour & possibly coming to your town, check their myspace for the tour dates. If you want to know what Glass Candy used to sound like check out our older Glass Candy post.
For a similar religious experience check out Chromatics whom Glass Candy often makes music with.
Like he says on 'Chemistry' Vivek Shraya is a greedy mother fucker. And usually we are too when it comes to sharing our fave tunes, but these we just couldn't keep to ourselves. This artist hails from Toronto & blends indie, dance and pop into infectious little anthems. The Haunting vocals sail smoothly over the beats accompanied by twangy guitar riffs. 'Fevered' is sure to remind you of T. Rex.
He's currently unsigned but his music sounds like it'd be right at home on sub pop or k records. He's also got a new record titled 'If We're Not Talking' that comes out on May 15th. Watch Vivek's myspace for details regarding the release.
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