Archive for October, 2010
This Tuesday brings a special treat to our Seattle peoples. Onra, the Parisian beatsmaster with some of the deepest (digital) crates around, is swinging through town to bless your eardrums with some bass. I hear he soaked that shit in rose water already too. Or something.
As we’ve written in the past, Onra is music to either make babies or start fights to. If that sounds contradictory to you, then you need to take a listen to the many freely available releases out on these webs. Onra is a master of building tension within a moving song. His creations layer melody, rhythm and highly attuned absences of both, creating mini-dramas along each step of a single song’s development. The result is a sound that keeps necks solidly cracking even at the smoothest moments.
It’s going to be quite a night – the Stop Biting crew (including LxNxM family WD4D) are heavyweights unto themselves. The combo? Clearly an 800-lb gorilla that you should pay attention to. It all goes down at the Lo-Fi (429 Eastlake Ave E), be thurr.
Check out the track/video below, and due to poor Soundcloud choices, head over here to listen to a gang more.
Onra – The One feat. T3 from Slum Village from Onra on Vimeo.
Funky Bijou is the collaborative brain child of French DJ/producers Marrrtin, Deheb and Freshhh. As far as I can tell, using my mediocre French language skills and uncanny ability to analyze film and photos, this track was inspired by a recent cratediggin’ trip DJ Marrrtin took to Mumbai and Delhi. He must have returned to France with at least a couple of suitcases full of gems, because after he got back he compiled an 80-minute mixtape of strictly Bollywood funk and Indian breaks (see cratediggin’ link above), and a few months later released the “Funky Bijou Anthem” with his homies.
It’s a pretty catchy song, and coupled with the accompanying video it makes for a genius mixed media presentation. Purchase the limited-release vinyl here.
For fans of Bay Area slanguistics and raps that are tighter than gnat booty, check out Casual’s new visual offering to the world. The song is called “Rock My Shit” and no, it’s not an advertisement for Metamucil. It’s a fun braggadocio track where Casual gets to style on fools. Despite how D.I.Y./low budget the video for this is, Casual’s bars and punchlines make everything worth it.
Hey Seattle. One of the fastest rising global music stars is headed to town this upcoming Saturday night and performing at the Showbox Sodo. It’s not our favorite venue in town either (we here you) but damn if K’naan isn’t one of the few performers out there that makes hitting up Showbox Sodo totally worth it.
From everything I can gather, K’naan’s literally traveled around the world and back since the last time he performed in Seattle at the Moore Theater on ’09 with Matisyahu. You might have seen him at the World Cup performing like a megastar or on Jimmy Kimmel Live two nights ago. He’s a good representative for a world music star should be: he’s not just doing hip-hop or singing or rock or whatever but rather he’s found his own genre that resonates with music fans around the globe. Just like you always knew that he would.
Here’s the best news of the day regarding K’naan: we’ve got free tickets to give away to a couple of lucky readers here on the blog. Here’s what you need to do: drop a line in the comments or hit us up on Twitter saying that you’d like a pair of tickets (some way to get a hold of you is helpful) and we will pick the winners in the next 24 hours. Winners will be decided semi-randomly, but trying to win always helps! Okay Seattle? We’re about to hook you up with free tickets, so let us know you want some K’naan in your life!
Check out footage of K’naan on Jimmy Kimmel performing “Fatima” below the jump.
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If there’s one thing that’s emerged a great deal over the past two days, it’s how much people truly love and appreciate the music that Gregory Isaacs made. So many top publications gave his passing a mention all over the world and reggae lovers have poured out lot’s of endearing comments that I wish Isaacs could have heard while he was alive. It sort of makes me a fan of those living funerals where you get to tell the person how you feel about them while they’re still able to hear it.
Anyway, in addition to what the Deadly Dragon folks did on East Village Radio and various fan mixes on the web, the good folks over 18 Karat Reggae put together a solid blend of Gregory Isaacs classics and rarities that deserve some shine. All of the aforementioned links I just hit you with are worth clicking on or I wouldn’t have included them, but peep what’s below and pour one out for the The Cool Ruler. Three days of mourning is standard so keep his spirit alive musically a little while longer if you can. Isaacs truly was one of the best pure crooners in the history of reggae. Enjoy.
Here’s an early Halloween treat for you, courtesy of New York’s Subatomic Sound and Kingston, Jamaica’s People’s Records.
The Vampires & Informers mini-album is the first in a series that teams up dancehall’s biggest deejays with electronic and experimental producers from around the globe. Originally a top selling limited edition 7″ vinyl recorded with Sly & Robbie back at Kingston’s Black Scorpio studios, “Vampires & Informers” has been resurrected and refixed for your bloodsucking entertainment by producers Subatomic Sound System, Dubblestandart, Stereotyp, Ming (of Ming&FS), & Kush Arora.
Halloween novelty value aside, this is good stuff. Stream and/or download the excellent sampler mix below. If you like what you hear, you should purchase it here.
Elephant Man – Vampires & Informers (Emch’s Subatomic Soundboy Burial Mini-Mix) FREE DOWNLOAD by SubatomicSound
more soul for you today, this time courtesy of matthew africa. this mix is his set from the noted sweaterfunk night down in san francisco. anyone reading us down in SF, check it out at the li PO lounge on sunday nights. stream it below and find the tracklist over here. in other matthew africa news, he also put together a massive massive mizell brothers mix that is absolutely worth checking out.
here are two great cuts detailing the pains of breaking up. above, you’ve got TC curtis shimmering jam of regret “should have known better.” below, you’ve got the flip side from michael sterling on “desperate.” i’ll update these later today with downloads (they’re both available if you search through beatelectric‘s archives), but i wanted to note my suspicion that enough people have played “desperate” at their wedding, which is silly once you listen to the words, and oh yeah, the track starts off with a police siren! listen to the words of the songs you play at your weddings people!
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michael sterling – “desperate”
The world lost another legend yesterday. Reggae crooner and original rudeboy lover Gregory Issacs died after a year-long battle with lung and liver cancer at the age of 59 in his London home on October 25th. One of the greatest of all time, Gregory will be sorely missed by reggae fans across the world, myself included.
