Feel my Bicep

Some beautifully soft vocals with contrasting darker keys up for grabs here, uploaded this months ago and only noticed i’d never posted it. Some of you might not have heard of RJD2, but he’s along the same lines as Dj Shadow, creating a lot of instrumental hiphop, however he has produced for a huge list of prominent rappers, and tracks have appeared in everything from adverts and videogames to the FIFA 2006 World Cup!

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RJD2

Arguably one of the best records out last year on KDJ’s Mahogani Music, perfect music for summer – deeper than a clowns pocket but has nice sunshine vibes. Heavy on the samples combined with some nice loose MPC style grooves this is essential to the old school hip hop fans and house enthusiasts alike!

RA had a decent review of it; “Andrés’ Andrés II combines elements of soul, hip-hop, broken beat and house music. It’s a sample-heavy record which gracefully floats between head-nodding break beats and foot-tapping 4/4 grooves. While there are some slightly trite moments such as the bossa-nova sampling “Sing About It,” these are easily forgotten thanks to brilliant tracks such as “Change My Mind.” The latter samples GQ’s disco hit “Lies”—a song which Theo Parrish once (ugly) edited to create a dance floor burner. Still, Andrés’ production one-ups Parrish’s version by adding an inspired keyboard jam by Amp Fiddler as well as uplifting female vocal samples”

note: “Andrés’ production one-ups Parrish’s version” quite the statement ayh lad!

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Continue reading ‘Andrés – Walk on Through’

Cottam has been spinning other peoples records from the age of 14 – after ‘borrowing’ his brothers 80s soul and early hip hop he discovered house music and was hooked. Clubbing in the north through his teens, as acid became rave became progressive DJs like Dave Clarke introduced him to harder techno and electro, a love that still lasts to this day with DJs like Surgeon and the black country crew introducing dubstep into their sets.

After so long loving the music and tinkering with his own ideas, 2009 saw his first house experiments emerge, often re-working soul and hip hop tracks. This track is of the first limited edition COTTAM 12” released in September 2009 to a rapturous reception gaining record of the week status at Phonica!

In my head the tracks are like a collaboration between Theo Parrish, Mark E and a little bit of Soundstream, really funky disco with the underground hip-hop feel- there isnt really a genre you could pigeon-hole his music in. I suggest you have a listen to the rest of Cottam’s stuff over at soundcloud.

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Continue reading ‘Cottam1 – Side A’

Flying Lotus’ third studio album, 2010’s Cosmogramma, will have a tough task following 2008’s sublime L.A. In the mean time though A Decade of Flying Lotus, as mixed by Gaslamp Killer, will have to do. Whether or not it’s overly self-indulgent, a gesture of goodwill (released on Christmas day) or just blatant self-promotion, it’s worth a listen.

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Soul II Soul is a British double award-winning Grammy act that emerged from London at the end of the 1980s . The group initially attracted attention as a sound system, playing records at house and street parties (where their clothing style – dubbed “Funki Dred” – quickly made a splash, inspiring them to start a line of clothing). Founded by Jazzie B and featuring a changing roster of other musicians – notably Nellee Hooper, Simon Law, Phillip ‘Daddae’ Harvey and Caron Wheeler – Soul II Soul’s experiments in music-making of their own resulted in the dub plate “Fairplay,” which secured them a deal with Virgin Records. They had huge hits in 1989 with the singles “Keep on Movin’” and “Back to Life (However Do You Want Me),” both from their debut album Club Classics Vol. I. These songs (both featuring Wheeler on vocals) set the tone for early 1990s mainstream dance music in the UK.

12 Inch

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Ultimix

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Continue reading ‘Soul II Soul – Back to Life (Ultimix)’

The Family Stand was an American R&B band, who were active in the early 1990s. The band members were also largely responsible for creating the songs on Paula Abdul’s album Spellbound.

Ghetto heaven was their biggest hit, back in 1990, with the Soul II Soul remix being the stand out track from the release, gaining plays in every club in the world!

Big 90’s ‘Baltimore’ style beats, matched with tasty analog synths (think Massive Attack/Moby) and an era defining vocal makes this a firm fav of mine at the moment.

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Continue reading ‘Family Stand – Ghetto Heaven (Soul II Soul remix)’

James is recognized as one of the progenitors of smooth jazz. His music has also had a profound effect on the history of hip hop music, having been sampled time and time again his dark and eerie tracks like Nautilus helped inspire an entire genre of dark driving hiphop in the late 80’s and early 90’s. We included some of the best tracks (sampling Nautilus) below.

Bob James – Nautilus

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Main Source – Live at the BBQ

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Run Dmc – Beats to the Rhyme

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Eric B and Rakim – Follow the Leader

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Jeru the Damaja – My mind spray

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Big L – Let em have it L

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Soul II Soul – Jazzie’s Groove

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Continue reading ‘Bob James – Nautilus’

Cheeky old school house party jam! Originally written by Stevie Wonder for the Detroit Spinners, it was re-done,  so as to appeal to more hip hop audiences by Love back in 91′

I Heard an awesome Baltimore house remix of this, which I gotta track down again…..speaking of which, really wanna get round to do a lot more BMORE house stuff, it rocks!

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Continue reading ‘Monie Love – It’s a shame’

We have the reel master serving up a couple of slick, friendly edits/mashes. First up some classic hip hop from Dubble D and Rakim… although it has been sampled to death, you gotta love some of the old school scratch sampling…always fresh!

Dubble D & Rakim- soul squelch (Greg Wilson mash)

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Depeche Mode Esq industrial sampling chugger! slapping in-an-out like the proverbial Columbian/donkey scenario, and equally as entertaining.

Free Blood- grumpy (Greg Wilson version)

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Continue reading ‘Greg Wilson edits’

I’ve got a real 80’s hiphop bug at the moment, so expect a huge number of funk flava’d posts over the next few weeks!

Here one to get us started

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Continue reading ‘Coldcut – What’s that noise’