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).
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.]
This begins a new weekly dedicated to one of my favorite things: old rap, focusing on hip-hop of the 1980s and 90s. Every Wednesday, I promise a somewhat-comprehensive profile on some old rap, right here! I’ve got a lot to work with so I’m just going to jump in and pick one. First up is the Divine Styler.
Divine Styler, the Brooklyn born MC and producer, came up as part of Ice T’s Rhyme $yndicate and soon after dropped his debut album, “Wordpower” on Epic Records in 1989. Wordpower’s first single didn’t find commercial success, but it did find success with critics and much love on the underground:
You’ll hear the sounds and tempo of “Ain’t Sayin’ Nothin’” echoed later by another Rhyme $yndicate alumni—House of Pain on their seminal “Jump Around”. Here’s another track from “Wordpower” titled “Tongue of Labyrinth” which was the original b-side to “Ain’t Sayin’ Nothing”:
Divine Styler, on his 1992 sophomore release titled, “Spiral Walls Containing Autumns of Light” departed from a hip-hop sound for a more avant-garde, experimental, punk or new age sound. Influenced by his conversion to Islam and his need for innovation, this album was entirely different from his debut. This second album was released by Giant Records and was considered a commercial failure. Also, this album was dismissed by the hip-hop audience because it really isn’t hip-hop. However, like most things, this album did find an audience, and this album does have its cult following of people who love envelope-pushers and genre-benders. Here’s a track from “Spiral Walls Containing Autumns of Light”:
The Divine Styler released his third and last album in 1998, titled “Wordpower 2: Directrix” on DTX Records, and it was a return to a more conventional hip-hop sound. This record went out of print quickly, but was saved briefly by James Lavelle who re-released it on his Mo’ Wax (unofficial site) label in 2000 (albeit, with an slightly altered tracklisting and entirely new cover art). Now Mo’ Wax is defunct as well, meaning all four Divine Styler releases are out of print and hard to come across. But don’t let that stop you from trying eBay or amazon affiliates. Here are a few tracks from the album(s) and a b-side instro from a Mo’ Wax promo:
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