Paul's Pal

I've searched all over the internet for info on Paul Hunter and I can't even find a picture. Maybe I have crummy Google skills or there's just not a lot out there about him which is pretty amazing considering the amount of music he put out.

I first heard of him through his Red Hook Project record. Rip One and I used to exchange mixtapes of records we were digging and he put a couple songs from this 12" on one. It took me a few years to finally track a copy down, but to this day it still holds up as a powerful and moving piece of music.

Paul Hunter/Red Hook Project - Peaceful Morning


Fast forward a few years later and I get an email from my man Huggs about this Brother of Soul record. Come to find out it's the same dude behind the Red Hook record under an alias. I want to find out more about him so if anyone can point me the right direction please drop me a line in the comments section.

Brother of Soul - Be Right There

RANDOM

I know my posting times have been mad sporadic lately but better late than never!
It's friday night and I know some of you are ready to get your Johnny Kemp on so I'm posting random uptempo joints to set your night off. Enjoy and have a good weekend y'all! Don't forget I'll be holding it down @ SMASH tonight if you're in town.

Grand Puba - Fat Rat

Tony Lee - Reach Up

Family Tree - Family Tree feat. Sharon Brown (N.C. edit)

7 Samurai - Modernization

Sam the Kid

More beats for you. This time coming from Portugal's Sam the Kid. The 3 songs I posted are from Beats Vol. 1 Amor from 2002. I don't know it it's still available, but it's worth tracking down.

Sam the Kid - A Manha Seguinte

Sam the Kid - Seducao

Sam the Kid - Alma Gemea

La Linea

Osvaldo Cavandoli was that dude.

3 days after the weekend

Saafir - Can U Feel Me?

Malcolm Catto

... is a bad motherfucker.

I'm sure much has been written about Malcolm Catto since the release of the Heliocentrics LP and the new Untitled MRR-ADM 10" (aka Dirty Drums and formerly known as MHE - you have to click the Dirty Drums link! That shit will have you buggin' out for hours). Some people might know him from his work with DJ Shadow or Connie Price and The Keystones ("Bloods Haul") or his work with Yesterday's New Quintet, or from his solo work on Mo Wax, and some might even know him as having one of the illest record collections on the planet, but I know him from his work with The Soul Destroyers.

I first heard about The Soul Destroyers around 2000 or so. I was buying tons (tonnes?) of new funk at the time and they were head and shoulders above the rest just murdering shit - most of it thanks to the drumming of Catto. Dude is a beast for real. Just check some of the songs I posted below and you'll see why some consider him one of the best funk drummers in the world.

The Soul Destroyers - Armadillo









This is the second 7" they released and while "Blow Your Top" will forever be the shit, this song definitely comes close. Check out how he flips the time signature of the break and comes right back in on beat. Ridiculous.

Malcolm Catto - Copter









"Copter" was his first release on Mo Wax. It originally came out as a 7" , but the version I posted is from the "Rock" 12" that was released shortly after. This is the song in it's entirety. He plays all the instruments on this single from what I remember.

MRR-ADM feat. Malcolm Catto - Untitled 2*









This is just one of the joints from the new record everyone is scrambling to get a copy of (dudes are already selling it for $50 on ebay - wtf?!). From what I understand one side is original MRR-ADM compositions while the other side features Catto on 3 tracks. This is just a sample, believe me. You can still find some copies at Turntablelab and Fat Beats.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Thanks to everyone who came out to the People Under the Stairs show last Friday. We had a blast!















"put your arm around me, dude!"












Inside jokes don't work well with big crowds of people!

do not attempt to adjust your dial

Be sure to roll through if you're in town tonight. This is not to be missed...
































People Under the Stairs - Flex Off
From the album Stepfather

Not your ordinary

I've been searching all morning for a Youtube clip but it looks like it was made private. The video is titled "mpc quickie" and it's just a guy filming his MPC while the illest beat plays in the background. The person behind the beat and the video is none other than Damu the Fudgemunk. I had been checking for this dude ever since I saw that clip and luckily I wasn't the only one. Most of you by now will know him has one half of Y Society along with MC/DJ/Producer Insight. They just released their debut album Travel At Your Own Pace on Tres Records and needless to say, you need it in your life.
I happened to come across a free album of unreleased beats on the People Under the Stairs website and thought I'd share it with everybody. There's more than a few facemelters in here. I hate to compare people, but for fans of golden era Pete Rock this is as close as you're gonna get.
BEATSBEATSBEATSBEATS

Damu The Fudgemunk - Spare Time Instrumental LP

Live MPC Demo @ Fat Beats

coming soon

Artist: Erykah Badu
Title: Honey (DJ Day Remix)
Format: 7"
Label:
Release Date. 19 April 2008

Limited promo only 7“

yoyoyo

Due to circumstances beyond my control I wasn't able to make it to SXSW this year. Something came up literally hours before my flight and I had to cancel. It sucks, but shit happens and you gotta keep it moving. Big shout out to Mike 2600, Dr. Delay, Maker, DJ Mel, Cosmo Baker and Joe Eleven, Dori and everyone at Friends of Sound. I'll be there next year no doubt.














Some of you have probably heard about all the multi track files that have been popping up over the last year. I'm not sure who's behind them, but there's been some incredible classics released with all the individual instruments from the master reels ("Superstition", "What's Going On", "No Woman No Cry", etc.).
Here's a few alternate mixes I did yesterday. Nothing major, but it was a good learning experience.

"What's Going On"
"What's Going On (instrumental)"
"Ain't No Mountain High Enough"


In other news... here's an article for eMusic about Melting Pot Music by Hua Hsu.

Almost forgot

If you're in Austin this weekend...



DJ Day (Melting Pot Music, Innernational, Palm Springs CA)
DJ Magneto (SES Records, N20, Lodubs, Santa Barbara CA)
DJ Diabetic AKA Shepard Fairey (Obey, Los Angeles CA)
DJ Zebo (SES Records, Chicago IL)
DJ Willy Joy (Fly By Night, Chicago IL)
DJ Donna Summer (Cockrock Disco, Berlin)

Sat - Free beer and book signing by Mingering Mike (!)

Cop the limited 7" by Mingering Mike @ Vangaurd Squad.com. Real heads doth knoweth the deal.

Don't You Take Your Love to Town

I was originally gonna post about Little Beaver, but while I was listening to Party Down singing my ass off and doing the dishes (you know you do it) I had another idea. I got to thinking about the lyrics of "I Can Dig It Baby" and realized there's a gang of songs about women running around on their man. Now this isn't any kind of reflection on my personal life so don't get it twitted, I just thought it would be cool to post a theme for a change. Think about it though, how many songs are there from the ladies about us dogging them out? This is the other side.



Little Beaver - I Can Dig It Baby


By now everyone is familiar with Little Beaver and this album* in particular, (and rightfully so it's dope from beginning to end) but this is my favorite cut.

*I don't know if it was mentioned in the Wax Poetics article, but Jaco Pastorious (not Nelson "Jacko" Padron) played bass on this album. Supposedly this song was his first ever commercial release.















Mighty Joe Hicks - Ruby Dean


I've had this record for forever and while the drumbreak is cool, this is the real joint on that album. This song is heavy.




Eddie Simpson - Big Black Funky Slave


Woooo... I remember hearing this on a Conmen tape from Jake One and Mr. Supreme back in the day and flipping. This dude is getting played in a bad way. He works all day, comes home and has to babysit while his lady takes his money and spends it getting drunk with another man. Damn.


That's gonna do it for now until I get back from SXSW. I'll try to post while I'm out there, but if not, expect a big re-cap when I get back. Be good ya'll (and don't you take your love to town!).

Keepin' On

There was a time when I kept up with all the new funk records that were coming out, but as time went on and more and more people started jumping into the scene I slowly stopped checking for them. This originally came out in 2002 right around the peak of the whole thing and was "officially" released last year on Freestyle Records. They had asked me to do a remix, but it's still in limbo as I write this.

The Sound Stylistics are a loose knit band of musicians from various funk groups (James Taylor Quartet, Brand New Heavies, Herbaliser, New Mastersounds, etc) and while nothing is exactly groundbreaking on here, they get some things spot on like the song below that sounds like an outtake from Places and Spaces.

The Sound Stylistics - Keepin' On


The Sound Stylistics Live at the Jazz Cafe London

We Don't Play

When I first heard the scratches in this song I was straight up blown away. I thought Aladdin and Joe Cooley had shit on lock until I heard this. I remember visiting my grandparents in L.A. and going to Sam Goody (or Musicland?). They had this machine with a bunch of songs in it and you could make your own custom cassette. I think it was like 10 songs for a dollar each. I filled up a whole tape with just this song. It wasn't until years later that I finally got the 12" (shout out to Rip).

This was the only record that Frescho and Miz ever made. The B-side, "Now You Know" is also dope with Freshco going off over the break from "The Jam". I always wondered why they never came out with a whole album. I had heard rumors that they recorded more songs but got dropped from the label. Last year I happened to come across an ebay auction for a CD of unreleased songs (sold by Freshco himself) which is as close as we're ever gonna get to a full album. Here's one of the better joints on there. I only wish there was more cuts!

Unreleased Track 4

For those that are interested, you can get the CD at www.freshcoandmiz.com

Flowers

Nujabes - Flowers

While most of the country is freezing their asses off it's a warm 72 degrees over here and I'm feeling fine.
Nujabes is a Dj/producer from Japan who always comes correct. Some people might know him from the Youtube video below. They used his song "Music is Mine" from this same album, but "Flowers" is the joint for today. Have a good weekend everybody and for those of you in town, don't forget to check out DJ Sheep, Root Down's DJ Expo, and yours truly tonight at SMASH!

SP Sh*t

I've been on a big instrumental kick lately, especially when I'm driving. There's nothing like zoning out to beats while you're moving around the city.
I've been rocking DJ Kikkoman's AM Radio mix (Kikko holler with your myspace link!) and SPShit 07 from Fred Fades & Deck Daddy.
I found out about this mix through Soulstrut.com and was like "hmm Fred Fades...that name sounds familiar". Then I realized he and Blame One just put a record out together. It's a small word forrilla.

If you like beats this mix is for you (right click/save as to download).

SPShit 07


"I first got my SP1200 early in 2007, but got heavy into it when my MPC got ucked up, the summer of 2007. I´ve made about 130-170 SP beats since then, and alot of these beats were made with Deck Daddy over at my spot. Deck Daddy got his SP1200 in December 2007, and he has already learned me lots of functions and stuff I did´nt know about. We have also made tons of collabo beats on the SP.. Anyways.. There is no way we´re going to release all this shit, and we have got lot of mails from dudes who be like “Oh man you guys are the only one out there who knows how to rock an SP, that ACTUALLY STILL rock it”.. I mean, all the legendary SP dudes aint using the SP no more.. It´s sad, but thats the way it is. Anyways, I compiled this shit today, just raw SP stuff, out the floppies. All mixed inside the machine, and recorded through the main out, cause I don´t have any mixer with enough working outputs.. My mixer is BADDD, and it DOES NOT WORK.. But I got records, and Deck daddy thought me alot about EQing shit before recording it and other small tricks. So the beats doesnt sound that bad.. DeckDaddy has featured on maybe 40-50% of these beats. Just wanted you dudes to know. For those who don´t know, we´re pretty heavy into diggin also, so I included some records i had layin around the floor when I recorded.. Random joints.. some of them are used in the tracks aswell.. I hope some of you dudes out there enjoy it.

BY THE WAY!!! The volume isn´t really good mixed, some of the shit sounds lot louder than the other ones..

Peace,

F."

Flashback '97

TTTV Vol. 1


It starts getting ill around 4 minutes in. I still can't get over those chirps!

Beat Biter?

So I wake up to an email yesterday about Rick Ross and Jay-Z rapping over a beat that sounds like "Four Hills". Now I know people sample the same records all the time and the particular one I used isn't rare at all, so I didn't think twice when I heard about it. Once I listened to it I realized they went back and re-played the sample and had a choir come in and change the original lyrics. Even more proof of it just being a coincidence using the same song. I didn't see what the big deal was until I heard them re-do the one thing that wasn't in the original song - the vocal/echo scratch melody that you hear in the clip compared below. Add a similar drum pattern and it's safe to say the dudes who made the beat probably heard my song. Either way, I'm not buggin. I just think it's a trip.


Let me know what you think