I seem to be drawn to the chilled out vibes in music this week. The cha cha cha chang (?) of this song is soulful, laced with moments of winding funk beats which lend it a cool, fleshed out tune. Sometimes, I enjoy listening to a bit of instrumental hiphop/triphop/ soul /funk. Instrumental music is cool to chill out to.
The saxophone gives the A-side a G-funk delight.
Is that even a music term?
I guess it is now. 😀
This is the first song I’ve heard of the BACO RHYTHM & STEEL BAND.
So it’s great they’ve got a B-side to sample.
On the B side, they have done a rework of Mobb Deep’s hit with the same name. In fact, the B-side has gone straight into my playlist. I adore sounds that immerse cultures and flaunt a multitude of sounds. This has a real Bhangra, anime, Bolly wood espionage feel. It’s playful and seriously cool. Bangerz delight.
For those of you who want to hear Mobb Deep’s ordinal song ‘Burn’ – yeah, they’ve done the song justice. It’s sweet!
Finally, to round up this post, if I may… I wish to impart and depart (lol)with a few words
.I always want to be successful in whatever I’m doing just like everyone else. I want to get it right. I want to see my “5-year GOAL/PLAN” results from the day I have an idea to do something different with my blog or with my Life.
It is cool to not have everything figured from the initial conception. Be cool with that and enjoy the process.
Every day is not going to be a day where we feel we have hit our creative goals.
Great or small.
Sometimes it’s cool to break down a big dream in to smaller chunks. Count all your achievements -great and small
Coorabell- visual & ear galactic delight. It took me three listens to fall in love with the track. I kept coming back to it Why? 4:21 mins is the moment I fell in love-100%. Sam Bishop (birth name) drops in hard techno yet still maintain the spirit of not becoming lost to the machine of electronic music. Electronic Ambience with a holy mother of God punch.
Turns out Floating points is a Neuroscientist turned D.J. -(He studied the Neuroscience of pain) He’s managed to gain respect with the likes of Four tet, Kode 9, and Theo Parrish in the current electronic/EDM movement.
He has a classically trained background he describes as ‘classical, baroque, romantic renaissance’.
He discovered through improvising & experimenting on the piano with what he later identified as jazz compositions. That was how he learned to break the rules.
He cites he was influenced by the Brazilain sounds of bossa nova of artists such as Gal Costa.
He was challenged to explore electronic music (which didn’t have the instruments such as the clarinet or violin) because the music still moved him.
He describes it as making sense of ‘organised noise’. He started finding music possibilities that he felt in every day, organic sounds such as being on a train
The second track I listened to of Manchesters, Sam Bishop ( Floating points) was
Les Alpx -The video explodes colours of plasma have a calming effect to contrast to the tempo of the track
I love the energy. It’s bordering hardcore techno yet retains a melody I can relate to
Something I can only refer to as -the ‘soul clap’. I’m not a huge fan of hardcore techno
If a track brings on a feeling resembling the soul clap then that is what usually wins me over.
What I like about his music is that he has insight into how he produces music – there is a methodical approach creating music with science and using visual media create an immersive experience of sound and using visual imagery to create a space where we can see music. Music that engages multiple sensory stimuli.
I feel like Science x creativity with a touch of esotericism is a perfect equation for experimental music – He named his debut album- Elaenia. (after having a dream about) a tropical bird.
Illogic has pushed the boundaries with the track ‘First trimester’ ( Illogic – Celestial Clockwork (2004)).
Each verse focuses on the different perspective of a couple and their unborn child going through the decision of whether to keep their child or have an Abortion.
It’s a lateral thought-provoking song to the Life versus Pro-choice debate.
It is Illogics maturest track to date.
It highlights the need to create more awareness (about not only women) but Men’s thoughts and emotions; about Life & Abortion & challenging our beliefs. It definitely engages critically with this still taboo subject.
We seether gamut of emotions the couple go through trying to keep their relationship together & looking at what is best for their futures. The inner conflict is raw. The last verse from a child’s perspective blew me out of the water.
American rapper, poet and record producer from Los Angeles Jon Wayne-not your usual hip hop suspect.
‘My words are my only thing‘ reminds me of the saying I use a lot ‘write to recover’.
His emotional connection to his words and his passion are relatable & inspiring.
The Intro immerses you into a dream state with mesmerising percussion instrumentals
Looking at this non-stereotypical wordsmith:
A long-haired, casual, big man definitely stirred up my judgments.
How good is he going to be?
Jon Wayne has an effortless dope flow and on point rhyming.
This track ( taken from his ‘Rap album 2, 2017) is a personal narrative documenting his rise in the hip hop industry.
He decided at an early age that if he “made it” he would revel in the hip hop music fame lifestyle.
as he raps
Life’s too short for modesty.
This album is an album that “saved” Jon Wayne’s life as he was a full-blown alcoholic before he wrote this album. It is a product and a process of how he recovered from drinking.
The instrumentals layered under Jon Wayne’s beats and bars immerse you into his world of how he made it & he backs up his more bold lyrics with introspective lyrics that reveals how his experiences & character are informed.
The song is structured as a chronological timeline of his experiences. It is like a spoken word diary.
His lyrics have a bite to them that doesn’t come across as ostentatious (it may help that he looks like a big cuddly brother or friend)
2006 Dilla died and i was living off his gift
His candour & his ability to relate his experiences in a way that establishes what he wants to do in hip hop shows an endearing vulnerability. He is not afraid to state he promised himself that he would “body shit” ( and embrace his career ) if he became successful.
There is a depth to his lyrics and style of rapping that reveals someone who is not going to take his career or life for granted and will embrace all of it. He will even revel in his alter ego because of how far away he veered from being in a position to be so philosophical, and existentialist about expressing himself.
rich
if I feel God in my home?Maybe, I write because I’m feeling odd in my bonesI wrote my poems so I could stay in my zoneThinking: Why go to chug when I exorcise this demon I’m not thinking of those
His soothing, smooth easy style of emceeing unravels a personal and autobiographical narrative. He raps so eloquently about ideas beyond his rise to the music industry that he is 100% G.O.A.T.
Big up to credible talent showing the best of the talent on the west coast of contemporary hip hop artists
“… It’s passed on! This parrot is no more! It has ceased to be! It’s expired and gone to meet it’s maker! This is a late parrot! It’s a stiff! Bereft of life, it rests in peace! If you hadn’t nailed it to the perch, it would be pushing up the daisies! It’s rung down the curtain and joined the choir invisible. This is an ex-parrot!”
Monty Python
In my darkest moments when air extinguishes all light
Hopelessness hangs heavy above me
It hovers
Spongy , dense
A Cloud with a fierce clout.
I scramble around seeking for a match
I hear the mirthful giggle of a child
The purrs of a blissed-out cat.
My senses are aroused -Suddenly
The rain pelts down, the wind whips, lashing my face, arms- my entire mortal skin.
“The worst thing about that kind of prejudice… is that while you feel hurt and angry and all the rest of it, it feeds you self-doubt. You start thinking, perhaps I am not good enough”-NINA SIMONE –
I never knew why I connected so much with this woman’s voice and songs so much, until now.
We seemingly have nothing in common- she was a trained classical pianist, jazz and soul singer, and a proud African American lady, actively a part of the American civil rights movement.
She hung out Martin Luther King! She was born in the 1930’s.
I , on the other hand, was born and grew up in South Africa. I am white. I was born in the early 1980s when the apartheid regime was crumbling.
Recently, I watched the documentary about her life on Netflix and I identified with this wild spirit within her. A spirit demanding justice. She was a person who had a name but couldn’t truly own it.
There is a song she sings – AINT GOT NO -I GOT LIFE(she is simply mesmerizing to watch)
The song ends with her singing
“I am my freedom. I got my freedom.”
That is my connection to her. For a long time I wasn’t accepted,I may well have been another skin color.
In fact- in post-apartheid. -early 90’s -I spent most of my teens taking drugs with the colored or black and Indian community ( they identify themselves with these terms in South Africa btw ) and increasing less time with white people.
At various points in Nina’s life she felt like she had lost her mind.
I nearly became mad.
In fact I am sure I did.
Many times.
I nearly died -countless times too.
I was forced out of South Africa because my mother couldn’t stand by and watch me die.
It took 17 years to get to the person I am today.
I should be dead. I guess life has bigger plans for me. It is not for lack of me trying every possible way to kill myself by my hand or another’s..
I have always wanted my freedom to be me in my body and mind and be comfortable in it.
In my search for Freedom I even became like some feral creature to get it. I could say I only imitated what I saw other people do.
Its’s strange how other people are quick to judge. They don’t seem to see that they do the same things to cope.
Oh,how they just took .
Boys
Girls
Men
Women
People just took from me what was useful to them and discarded me like a used condom. Making sure there was no evidence to be found that linked them with the theft of my own creativity and soul.
People took a lot from Nina – she left the U.S.A. for many years to find her mind and peace.
One of my favorite sayings I always tend to tell people is
“I’m just a soul whose intentions are good – Oh lord please don’t let me be misunderstood”
I’ve often felt misunderstood.
I have made one hell of a journey.
So these days if someone misunderstands what I say, I have to pretty much cut them off and be direct and tell them that they have misunderstood or not heard or misinterpreted what I am saying .
To have soul, you have to be free.
Completely free of your mind and body -you mustn’t covert away any part of you , you must reveal your soul to the entire world.
People will either get you or they won’t but that becomes their problem not mine or yours.
There must be no shame in revealing your soul to the world.
Your story.
Your journey.
Nina was diagnosed with Bipolar in the 80’s and I guess she felt displaced.
Bipolar,huh ?
Displaced ?
Now I know that world well.
I felt displaced in so many situations in my life. I did actually do something Nina did (at a point in her life)-
I turned inwards on myself.
I couldn’t win the political game of “normal” social life. I never fit in one social group or culture.
I stood out for all to see.
I didn’t fit. Yet, I felt comfortable in more than one place or with one type of people simultaneously.
I didn’t want to have to choose just one set of people to be around. I tried to conform but my soul rebelled
I struggled when I was growing up.
Not being able to fit into one box came high levels of recklessness on my part. I was probably the first person in my social group who displayed crazy- off her head signs.
It was awful because I was only 13-17 years old.
You could be a certain type of crazy but not my kind of crazy.
People backed up the fuck away…
Never mind that later many of my peers would have had more life experience and with that , they had gained a few extra pounds of experiencing the not so great hand life deals us at times.
There would come a time when many I knew would have to deal with whatever it decides to throw at you. Whenever it chooses to do so.
Maybe a few of them went
“Oh,now I get it.”
I took on adult responsibilities from a young age.
I didn’t fucking want them.
So it then became a political inquest into my soul…
My soul fled from me – leaped out of my heart, got lost in my head , ran- in search of the nearest exit.
It found that exit in a secret tunnel at the furthest part of my unconscious. It did a backflip out and over the balcony of my mind, landed on its feet and made for the ocean.
It went into hiding , to the deepest part of the ocean. A place it knew it could surrender to without protest. It could go with the current and not be examined for doing something as natural as just being its nature and of nature.
I searched to reclaim mine back for years.
Soul can’t be questioned it must be felt.
Nina felt stigma,
I felt stigma,
Many feel stigma.
She connected to so many because she wasn’t afraid to share her humanness and be her and speak up for ‘her kind’.
She inspires me to carry on speaking out for people who still suffer inequality with their mental health issues. I will never stop using my voice and writing to break down stigma and prejudice and ignorance.
There are four songs I want to share that she sang.
The only way she knew how to help change and shape the world she lived in -was to get political with her music. It killed her singing career and nearly killed her.
I can’t help but see Nina as such a positive role model for all genders, race, sexuality, age and faiths.
Stopped everything I’m doing to post this track. It’s catchy. I first heard it back in 2018. Its got an almost haunting & entrancing introduction. When the intro kicks in with Elderbrook hypnotic chorus
‘If you wanna switch off you could’
You know you are going to be engaged from the start till the end.
describing his approach to the music production process
Phonetics are as important as lyrics. My voice adds another important harmonic element to the sounds
It’s a mesmerizing song. I love the repetition of words & their apparent simplicity. Hypnotic. It’s downtempo/ambient with a twist. The bridge chorus chants toying with your ears & soul.
The clicking sample has ( is there an official term for this? ) adds an organic feel to this track & fits with the harmony & lyrics. It’s GOAT.
Inherently, Elderbrook enjoys creating samples from simple sounds
two examples are, Breaking his reading glasses and the crackling of ice in a hot cup of coffee.
” I often bang the table I’m sat at, sample it and use that as my drums
It’s a sweet little find. The video is A Vincent van Gogh painting come to life. A paradox of a song- You can switch off to this yet still remain critically engaged. Who can switch off when someone is telling them too? Reverse psychologically 101?
Who is Elderbrook? British musician, producer & all-around Creativist, Alexander Kotz.
He’s relatively new on the electronic scene. His musical background started at 16 when he joined a folk/ indie band.
He initially wanted to explore the more soulful sounds of hip hop. This song captures the essence of the gospel
Today’s not your average music GOAT review is by Parisian hip hop/Afro-funk /soul/electronic music producer GUTS ( Fabrice Franck Henri) new album’ philanthropiques'(March 2019). It is the Mama Makeba sizzler for this year (to date).
GUTS started out making hip hop music before branching out to experiment with further genres of music.
GUTS started out his career in the 90’s as a beat maker. He has collaborated with Common & De La Soul to name a few artists.
I call songs like this #goatbahs or G.reatest O.f A.ll T.ime ( or another translation dope songs) because I think music like this in a league of its own.
It is a song that reminds me of my childhood in Africa, Barcelona, Miami and all places tropical. I’m a huge fan of French hip hop/electronica/genre.
‘Kenke corner’ has an infectious beat, rhythm & is guaranteed to take you to another place. A vibrant place full of soul. A place to lose yourself & soak up multiple cultures.
This has got to be one of my fave songs for spring/summer 2019.
Guts-Philanthropiques album is clearly influenced by his love of the Balearic islands, Africa, Brazil, the Caribbean.
It’s like taking a trip to al the best tropical destinations.
GUTS called on a diverse bunch of global music artists to infuse this afro tropical album with an array of instruments-trombones, saxophones flutes, drums, bass & guitar, keyboards & we have an album that scintillates with celebration for life.
This experimental album has been labelled as Afro Tropical.
Grab your virtual ticket and soar over jungle beats, bass & funk.
If you like this song or album then I would recommend listening to his ‘Les Bienhereux’ album to show how diverse his music is.
FACT: This is the first album to be recorded & released by wax on records music ( Nightmares on wax label)
It’s fresh, funky, soulful, vibrant, and full of flavour.
Daisy in the willows 