Hensforth, one of Canada’s promising young DJs/Producers, gives DJ Shadow’s ‘Midnight In A Perfect World’ (from his groundbreaking first album ‘Endtroducing’) the special remix treatment that’ll easily do the trick to keep the club kids bobbin’ like chickenheads!
Here are a couple more Hensforth remixes, taking yet again classic songs from the nineties era (this time in the rock vein) and blending them with present-day artists to keep the alternative/hip hop folks happy…
This one’s got some rap samples from Mike Jones‘ ‘Still Tippin’ track over Smashing Pumpkins‘ ‘Zero’ for a B-More-Rap-Rock joint that will murder on the dancefloor…
Not intended to feature the latest music out there, my ‘Pick of the Week’ is to simply share & highlight music I personally enjoy regardless of timeframe. This weeks featured artist is Scorn (Mick Harris), remembered by most as being the former drummer for grindcore legends Napalm Death. Scorn has worked with avant-garde composer John Zorn and prolific producer Bill Laswell and has been remixed by the likes of electronic virtuosos Autechre, experimental industrialists Coil, and Meat Beat Manifesto to name a few. Scorn’s sound was a precursor to dubstep, and for the most part, can best be described as nightmare music- dark atmospheric tones and super low bass frequencies over left field dub/downtempo beats.
Will N.Y.’s Moby ever not be relevant? His acute sense for great pop, masterful techno, skillful songwriting, and his willingness to take risks is what keeps the man moving forward, this, eighteen years after his initial release ‘Mobility’. Mute will release Moby’s eighth studio album, ‘Last Night’ this March 31st, following the recently released first single ‘Alice’ and the just-released second single ‘Disco Lies’.
The grading curve is very high on ‘Last Night’, and picking singles must have been quite the task with such a solid record. ‘Alice’ is set apart with vocals from UK reggae artist Aynzli Jones and rappers S.O.Simple & Smokey of Nigerian rap group 419 Squad—the results approach a classic trip hop sound. While the ‘Alice’ single gets additional remix work, most notably by our hero, NY’s versitle EDM kingpin and Trouble&Bass‘r, Drop The Lime (a.k.a. Curses!).
Our love for trippy Londoner songstress Martina Topley Bird runs deep (we told you so), as does our lust for Aussie techno-shoegazers Van She, that’s why I was ecstatic when I heard the sexy pair went half on a music baby (and don’t forget Danger Mouse did the original production for one hot Ménage à trois)! The tune came on my radio last this last Friday, part of The Crystal Method’s exceptionally good radio program “Community Service Radio” for Indie 103.1 (they stream it online, yo!). I immediately set out get that track(!), but sadly, it was beyond my reach. …Until now. Low and behold what’s just found its way to the ‘toofbox:
We likes it! The full ‘Poison’ single drops on May 5th with an additional remix by British electro-rockers The Officers. Martina’s full length ‘The Blue God’ following up shortly after on May 12th, both released on London’s Independiente.
So smooth. Londoner and trip hop legend Martina Topley-Bird’s new album titled ‘The Blue God’ is around the corner and it’s produced by the man—’round the way New Yorker come UK resident—Danger Mouse of Gray Album, DANGERDOOM & Gnarls Barkley fame. We’re excited. The first tease of the record is ‘Valentine’, a morose and thoughtful song about love.
Martina Topley-Bird, emerged on the world stage in 1995 alongside trip hop artist Tricky, on his debut solo album, ‘Maxinquaye’. Martina Topley-Bird contributed greatly to some of Tricky’s finest tracks throughout the 1990’s (including all but two on ‘Maxinquaye’). A young Martina Topley-Bird was only 15 when she recorded her first song with Tricky, ‘Aftermath’. Her voice speaks of experience well beyond her age, I was properly and delightfully fooled.
Here’s some more favorites from the first pair of Tricky records including a Stereo MCs B-Side remix. And ‘Sandpaper Kisses’ from her 2003 solo debut record ‘Quixotic’:
Last month we posted about the UK band Malakai who seems to be single handedly carrying the ‘Bristol Sound’ torch. The group was personally signed to Portishead founder, Geoff Barrow’s label Invada. That in itself should speak volumes about the validity of this band.
A quick listen at the few tracks they have unleashed only and you can tell that Geoff definitely played a role in the production of Malakai’s forthcoming EP. A new promo video for the new single battle was released on youtube. So psychedelic.
And to my disbelief no one else picked up the first single ‘Fading World’ which we posted last month. In case you guys missed that post, here it is again.
A six track EP is set to be released September 3rd in the UK and September 10th here in the states on Island records. You can pre-order it from Amazon. Two more streamable tracks are available on Malakai’s myspace.
The CD was released stateside on July 24th and there is a 2 CD limited edition version available which comes beautifully designed slipcase and 50 page booklet featuring specially commissioned paintings by Massive Attack’s 3D. You can get your copy here.
Back in school classmates would always ask each other ‘if you could marry anyone in the world who would it be‘? Most used to immediately reply with ‘Lark Voorhies’ or an ecstatic ‘Tiffany Amber Theissen’. I always had my answer poised at the tip of my tongue, should anyone ever ask me, though they never did… But if they did I’d scream shamelessly ‘Beth Gibbons’ at the top of my lungs and dance around the classroom imagining our wedding day & my beautiful dress…. but I digress.
Between the years 1994 and 2000 Beth, Geoff Barrow & Adrian Utley, collectively forming Portishead were the air that I breathed. Portishead posters, shirts, CD’s and vinyl were my food. I had it all, duplicates of the CD’s one to open and enjoy and the other to store in the ‘vault’. I collected as many import singles as my little paycheck would allow.
Since their extremely long ‘hiatus’ I’ve longed for something, anything closely resembling Portishead &/or the ‘Bristol Sound’ that they and Massive Attack helped create in the late nineties. Beth’s project with Paul Webb a.k.a. Rustin Man and Adrian’s experiments with Mount Vernon Arts Lab were like water in a drought but the since then the gods have not been kind.
Enter Malakai. This is the closest thing to Portishead since Portishead! A Bristol band discovered by one of Portishead’s founding members, Geoff Barrow. They’ve released a super limited 12″ on Geoff’s Invada label called ‘Fading World’ which is big beat-esque & horn heavy, hinting back to earlier times.
A Malakai EP is slated for release this August on Island. Call it Trip hop, call it ‘Bristol Sound’, whatever you decide to refer to it as you will undoubtedly label it as long over due. Add Malakai on myspace now so you can say you were on the team since way back.
I knew it was a serious situation when Hype Machine and elbo.ws had no Chill Rob G tracks! Get this man some props already!
Chill Rob G’s career began in his home Jersey City, New Jersey when met the established Mark The 45 King and the pair began recording. At about the same time, the duo helped found Flavor Unit. The material they produced received radio love from DJ Red Alert which peaked the interest of (ill-fated) Wild Pitch Records. Chill Rob G was quickly signed and the first 12″ single, ‘Dope Rhymes’ (b/w ‘Chillin”) was released:
Now here’s where it gets complicated, and I hope that I’m getting the story straight! The second 12″ release made it into the hands of two then-off-the-radar German dance music producers by the name of Snap! who decided to sample (steal?) the lyrics from Chill Rob G’s ‘Let the Words Flow’ (from the single’s a cappella) and put them over their own beat with another R&B sample and call it their own creation titled, ‘The Power’ which became a hit in their native Germany. When the labels of Snap! and Chill Rob G got together they concocted some possibly shady deal whereby Chill Rob G was to record a new verses over the Snap! production for international release of ‘The Power’. But the version Chill Rob G recorded was never pushed or supported, and another version with new vocalists was created. New jack rapper Turbo B. also recorded a version of ‘The Power’ with his new lyrics for the international release, and it was the Turbo B. version that was ultimately used and promoted as Snap!’s official version. This is sad for two reasons, one because Chill Rob G’s version gloriously trumps the official Snap! release, and two, because Turbo B. was just some schmuck the label (Arista in Germany) plucked almost at random to to mimic Chill Rob G’s sound and record without a contract and probably received very little compensation, if any.
Here is the superior Chill Rob G version of ‘The Power’ and the international hit (#1 UK, #2 Ger, #2 US) version with vocals by Turbo B:
Not to say Snap! is bad. ‘The Power’ is a seminal dance track and rather amusing music video—All I’m saying is that it is inferior to Chill Rob G’s version. …And we can’t front on ‘Rhythm is a Dancer’ either. Hah.
‘The Power’ does appear on Chill Rob G’s first LP, ‘Ride the Rhythm’ and did reach the ears of the underground. It was rumored that this discounted dance anthem damaged his street reputation and that is why after his debut album he virtually disappeared (for over a decade), however I disagree. I think his MC reputation was always solid. Chill Rob G cites in this interview that it was primarily stress within his personal life (and hints at frustration with his label, Wild Pitch) that caused his recessing into obscurity at the peak of his career.
Every track on the first album is golden, but here’s a more favoritest favorite:
Here’s another ‘Ride the Rhythm’ favorite titled, ‘Bad Dreams’ and a lovely Trip-Hop cover version of it by Tricky with raps by Martina Topley-Bird from Tricky’s sophomore ‘Pre-Millenium Tension’ album (also another mix appears on Tricky’s debut record ‘Maxinquaye’ titled ‘Black Steel’):
Chill Rob G stayed off the radar until the early 2000s, when he resurfaced, only slightly, to release an underground album in 2000 titled, ‘Black Gold’, which includes truly random tracks from the previous decade. I’m not fond of it, and on the whole, it wasn’t very well received. Even Chill Rob G thinks it isn’t very good, as it was a disjointed collection of scraps with only a bit of really good. He also recorded two tracks with Ninja Tune artist, DSP in 2002 that weren’t too amazing either. That said, here’s the cream from the The Chill One’s return, a 45 King remix off ‘Black Gold’:
Yet, Chill Rob G is on the up and up again, with plans to come back with a full-fledged LP. Here is a recent song he’s done that I snagged off his MySpace. It sounds way more promising and is on heavy rotation at my house. He’s speaking on his life and doing it rather well—and I’m never mad at that. What y’all think?
‘Ride the Rhythm’ is undoubtedly one of the best hip-hop albums ever and from what I can tell, it’s a pretty common opinion. This is essential material, so if you don’t have it in your stacks, you ought get right and find it! Despite being re-issued in 2001, it is now out of print again, but both the original and re-issue can still be purchased from Amazon affiliates. As always, original pressing, 12″ and other rarities can be found on eBay.
Visit Chill Rob G on MySpace. Visit The 45 King at MySpace, too.
Portishead are to be the next curators and will be performing exclusively at All Tomorrow’s Parties, Nightmare Before Christmas in December 2007.
They will be playing their first full live set featuring new material in nearly 10 years at the event which is set for December 7, 8 & 9 at Butlins Holiday Camp at Minehead.
“We have always loved the All Tomorrow’s Parties set up and we’re happy our first shows will be there. It’s great to have the opportunity to introduce bands we love or have influenced us. We’ve chosen a diverse collection of artists to play with us and we’re really looking forward to it”
Details of the line up will be announced here and at the All Tomorrow’s Parties site www.atpfestival.com
Wow. I wish I was living in England right about now (or about December, rather)! Portishead is about as epic as it gets for us.
Here’s some Portishead stuff (including remixes and Geoff Barrow / Beth Gibbons side projects) to celebrate their return to form:
…and that’s enough. You want more, check Amazon or your fav. spot and I’m sure they got you.
If you want to see some recent Portishead video, check this YouTube vid for what appears to be an small and impromptu February 2007 performance in Bristol, UK.
Portishead have a MySpace and are in the process of redoing their website (click the P’s).
. Two more streamable tracks are available on 
