Three Interviews with Master Craftsmen on the Art of Hip Hop

Producer Madlib recently appeared on BBC Radio 6 for a lengthy convo with Gilles Peterson, talking about his friendship with MF DOOM, his latest album Sound Ancestors, his crate-digging exploits, his love of Sun Ra and spiritual jazz music, and Madlib even played a bunch of records on the show. 

Producer/emcee Bronze Nazareth appeared on the podcast From the Desk of Lo for an in-depth interview detailing his whole background as a musician, how he linked up with the Wu-Tang Clan, stories of staying with RZA while working on Birth of a Prince, how he heard tons of unreleased Wu material from the early-2000s, growing up with his longtime friend Apollo Brown, and plenty of other interesting stuff here that I have never heard him discuss with this level of detail. They even get into the million-dollar Wu album which Bronze had some music on. Interviewer does a great job asking informed questions. (At the end of the interview Bronze mentions a book project I have been working on with him. It's progressing toward final stages now and I'm excited to get it out to the world soon.)

SkillastratorLO aka Sunez interviewed underground emcee Rome Streetz on the Power Write Show podcast. Sunez is perhaps the most in-depth, insightful, and knowledgeable journalist writing about hip hop these days and his interviews with artists are always intriguing. In this talk they get into a level of detail on the writing of rap lyrics that you rarely hear in artist interviews. I especially dug the discussion of writing in a "concentrated" style, embedding so much meaning and interconnectedness in rhymes that it takes the listener several listens to catch on. They talk about the new album Rome Streetz made with DJ Muggs, the intricacies of Rome's writing process, what it's like to work with a legend like DJ Muggs, how Rome's music fits into and outside of the underground rap genre, how his approach differs from other rap artists, etc. Real informative discussion here.

Looking Back on 2019 (Part 3)

Street art seen in Mexico City, June 2019.

A little delayed in sharing this final look back at some of the things I liked about 2019, but that gave me time to properly soak in the music that dropped later in the year. As always with this blog, my favorite new albums came out of the realm of hip hop in its purest and grimiest form.

We are now nearly a quarter century past the golden era of hip hop and the art form remains alive with a slew of newer artists arising to bring fresh blood and new approaches to a musical tradition whose forefathers they seem to not only respect but spiritually summon and pay homage to. Some established rap gods have also helped bring along the new artists. These phenomena were reflected in some of the albums and artists I dug in 2019. Here are, in no particular order, my favorite albums from last year with a few words about each.

"Education"

"Education"
Freddie Gibbs ft Yasiin Bey & Black Thought
Produced by Madlib

I'll take Yasiin Bey (aka Mos Def) over dusty Madlib beats all day. Black Thought rhyming on a Madlib track sounds fresh too. And the Madlib sounds remains as gloriously lo-fi and cassette tape fuzzy as always. Which reminds me, it seems we've heard less and less from Madlib the last few years. Need to get back to that ten album per year pace he was maintaining for a while. You know he's got the material. 

(Video) Madlib Meets Ethiopian Legend Ayaléw Mesfin

Madlib meets legendary Ethiopian funk musician Ayaléw Mesfin whose music he has often sampled. The story of Ayaléw Mesfin, his struggles under an oppressive government, his humble appreciation of political asylum in America, and his emotional return to the stage to perform his music years later---there's a lot to appreciate in this 13-minute video. Ayaléw was jailed by an oppressive Communist regime that took over Ethiopia in the 70s. Arrested for distributing his music to the public for free, released only on the terms that he stop making and performing music.

A student of music in all its forms, we witness Madlib meet one of his idols and discuss their respective crafts as well as the harrowing story of what Ayaléw suffered through. Had to post this here as it really resonated and I'm glad to see Madlib showing love to one of the musicians whose work he's inspired by, while shedding light on an obscure artist for the fans.

Madlib Interview NYC 2016 (Video) & More

Posting this not because it's a fantastic interview or anything, but a new(ish) appearance of an interview with Madlib in that type of setting is worth celebrating and paying attention to. The interview technically isn't even anything special, mainly because Madlib is such a notoriously quiet character. But for me, as a huge Madlib fan, his elusive nature and bizarre personality---buried as it is within a thick turtle shell whose surface is decorated with jewels and whose cavernous depths echo exotic clanky music---is fascinating in and of itself. It's amusing watching Madlib here squirm away from straightforward answers, or use humor and sarcasm as subterfuge.

More importantly, Otis Jackson Jr. aka Madlib is widely considered (by those who know who he is) to be one of the great musical geniuses of our time. When he speaks (whether in a rare interview or through music), you listen. A multi-instrumentalist who transcends mediums and genres, his trippy crate-digging mixes of Brazilian jazz or African rock or other miscellaneous gems are just as interesting as his one-man band jazz releases or his legendary beat tapes. He's always been one of my favorite artists to write about and a constant presence in my daily playlists. I'm thrilled to see the mind of Madlib open up here even just a little bit to share his wisdom. Plus, above all else, the common thread of intrigue about his sound is his style, and the man's unique style certainly comes across in this interview. So do check it out.

After that, you can listen to this Madlib mix of Brazilian records from the crates, entitled Speto Da Rua.

(If you dig that, then also check out his newer mix, Mind Fusion: African Ear Wax.)


Lately, I've been immersed in the instrumentals he produced for Strong Arm Steady's 2010 album In Search of Stoney Jackson. I could listen to this for days:



And, lastly, one can't talk about Madlib without lamenting the absurdly long wait for the new Madvillain album with Doom. Here's Madlib's remix of a track from another long-awaited collabo, Doom and Ghostface:

The Music I Did and Didn't Hear in 2014

Trying to finish up this little series of year-end posts before we get too far into 2015...

Looking over the music I listened to in 2014, it's clear that I didn't do a very good job keeping up with the latest releases of even just my preferred narrow subgenre of underground hip hop. Thus, reviewing the albums of 2014 for me is as much about what I did listen to as what I didn't and still need to seek out.

Firstly, I already wrote a more in-depth piece about the two albums that were my favorites from the first half of 2014, The Living Daylights and Life Outside the Frame, so be sure to go give that a read.

Musically it was a great year as most of my favorite artists released long-awaited new material, including Bronze Nazareth, Madlib, Cormega, and the Wu-Tang Clan. In fact, looking back on it I spent most of the year listening almost exclusively to these new projects (while dabbling in their past catalogues plus exploring the old blind sage composer Moondog).

Rock Konducta (Parts 1 & 2) by Madlib
Was pining for this for a while. The vinyl dropped last January but those of us without phonographs had to wait until July for the mp3/CD version. Madlib, the legendary producer/sonic-trip-extraordinaire, added onto his mammoth catalogue with this newest edition of the "Beat Konducta" instrumental series, featuring a potpourri of obscure samples from the farthest reaches of 60s-70s psychedelic rock, prog rock, Zamrock, Krautrock, and every other eclectic rock, twisted, tweaked and chopped up into hip hop beats. Totaling more than 80 minutes over 50 tracks, most of them less than 2 minutes long, Rock Konducta is an enclosed universe in and of itself. There's an endless array of miscellaneous snippets, cacophonous blurts of speech, screams, Bill Murray disc jockey riffs, jangling-metal hi-hats, crunching drum lines, badass loops, synth-heavy snoozers, odd offputting tirades, the most random yelps you've ever heard (this tape has a recurrent motif featuring what sounds like a mentally disabled woman bleating "Gimme a dollar!"), ringing alarm clocks or phones, stand-up routines, and every other sonic microcomponent Madlib could cobble together to line this collage of treasures from his rock vinyl collection. There's certainly plenty of skippable material here, but you can easily distill this vast assemblage into a playlist of 30 tracks that are excellent (which is exactly what I did). Or you can listen to the full thing and drift away into the far reaches of Madlib's weird mind.

Favorite tracks: First of all, where the hell does he come up with all these track names? There are 52 tracks in all, none of which have a generic name. Among my favorites are the thumping, mildly melancholy "Motorik Matching", the rugged pysch rock jam "Black Widow", the woodwind orchestral head-bopper "Giant Okra", and the drum-heavy up-tempo controlled chaos known as "Soap Guillotine" on Part 1; deep into the more lackluster Part 2 is my favorite loop on the whole project "Dies Irae" (it's become one of my favorite Madlib beats ever), the rest of Part 2 is unspectacular aside from the rugged fiddle symphony "Teapot", the penultimate percussion showcase "Soon Over" and, of course, the beat tape's closing 30 seconds into which Madlib enigmatically inserts one of the finest, most grave-sounding beats. You'll first need to sit through a 90-second satirical skit of a botched plane hijacking because it's only after that, and a transitional distorted sample singing "though I call from far awayyyy/ you don't listen...," when the Beat Konducta decides to flip on the serious switch.

Autumn is Here

All of the colors are changing
Autumn is here
Leaves now are falling
Dark's near....


It's the first cool, crisp day of Fall here in Austin. Autumn has finally arrived in this beautiful city.

Exactly two years ago, my former girlfriend and I embarked on a 12-hour journey up the coast of California to attend the World Vegetarian Festival in San Francisco. It coincided with the final two days of an exciting baseball season, with San Fran as its epicenter. That crisp, chilly weekend was one of the more memorable experiences I've had in the last four or five years (documented here). Today in Austin, World Vegetarian Day will be celebrated at a massive outdoor potluck picnic party in Pease Park which I'm attending.

After that I'll be hanging out with a diehard San Francisco Giants fan to watch their postseason begin. Two years ago, shortly after we returned from that unforgettable Bay Area trip, the Giants won the World Series.

Baseball has reached its final stages. Football has begun.

The air is crisp, the shadows long. 

Autumn is here.

Instrumental: Whatkanido (Can Do It) by Madlib

More Links: Madvillain Edition

Catching up with a growing stack of new hip hop material...

Let's start with the legend known as MF DOOM, one of my favorite word weavers. The quarterly publication Frank 151 will be primarily featuring the Doomster in their upcoming Spring 2012 issue. The booklet will feature illustrations, photos, articles, and more, all revolving around that most enigmatic and mysterious metal-masked lyricist. Should be awesome. Stones Throw will carry copies of it once it's available.

Any basketball fan of even the most basic hip hop knowledge could've probably seen this coming: now that the Lakers' Kobe Bryant has to wear a face mask to protect his broken nose, DigitalGravel has created a cool-looking tee shirt showing Kobe rocking an MF DOOM-style mask (pictured above). If I can rub a few nickels together, I might have to acquire one of those.

Folk Flavor (Madlib)

This delicious, folk-flavored track originally reached my ears via Madlib's 2009 appearance on the Radio Nova show in Paris. Check out the full 30-minute set here, plenty of rare old records and mellifluous melodies. One of my favorite DJ sets from Madlib.

Album Review: MF DOOM - "Born Like This"

Art by Shaun Edwards - www.edwords.net

"Can it be I stayed away too long? Did you miss these rhymes while I was gone?"
- DOOM

After pretty much disappearing off the scene for a few years, DOOM (who dropped the "MF" from his name) released this short but densely rich little album in early 2009. With a total running time of just 40 minutes, four tracks where he doesn't even appear, and plenty of short solo tracks, it's a minimalist approach but then again his previous solo record MM..Food played less than 50 minutes long and was stuffed with lengthy skits and interludes. This is just his style. Madvillainy and DangerDoom were short records too, each one was also eminently replayable.

Wu-Tang Bats All in the Sky

As embarrassing as the pop and glitter music that parades itself as hip hop may be to the true fan of Rhythm And Poetry, and as ubiquitous as that hollow and monotonous commercial sound may be on the corporate airwaves, the essence of real hip hop music remains powerful if not exactly popular. This is especially evident for loyal fans of the Wu-Tang Clan and their endless throng of talented affiliates.

Almost 20 years after their debut upon the music scene, Wu generals like Raekwon and Ghostface Killah are still highly sought-after by both fans and fellow musicians, while The Rza has soared straight past the heights of musical production and film soundtracks into the director's chair for his film debut, The Man with the Iron Fists, starring Russell Crowe and set to be released later this year.

The Wu camp continues to release a steady stream of quality music, staying true to their formula (the original hip hop formula) of sharp lyrics, skillful flows, and sample-based loops with crackling drum breaks while giving birth to another generation of diehard fans (40-year-olds and teenagers alike can be found making the eagle-wings at concerts). This summer was particularly profuse as not only the Wu and their affiliates but even outside artists have delivered offerings in homage to the name of the mighty Shaolin supergroup. Here, I will briefly go over all that we've heard this summer.


Bronze Nazareth - School for the Blindman

First off, and most importantly, the ostensible 21st Century messiah of Wu-Tang, Bronze Nazareth, has finally released his sophomore album, the follow-up to his 2006 debut (one of my favorite albums of all-time) The Great Migration. The Detroit-based emcee/producer is considered the heir to the throne but unlike many of the Wu-Tang affiliates and Killa Bees, he did not simply inherit this title, he earned it. He's not a relative, old buddy/schoolmate, or record label-appointed collaborator, instead he's something of a savant who so impressed European Wu-Tang affiliate Cilvaringz (himself, an important part of Wu-Tang's new breed) back in 2002 that he was given an opportunity to show his work to The Rza who immediately signed him and housed him up in New York for two months to work on The Abbott's new album.

When that record, The Birth of a Prince, came out in 2003 there were two beats in particular that shot steam out of my ears and led me to declare that Rza had regained his magical touch production-wise. It wasn't until two years later that I actually thought to look at the album credits and realized it wasn't Rza who had made those beats, it was the debut of someone named Bronze Nazareth.

We eventually got to hear Bronze speak his piece lyrically and it was immediately evident that Wu-Tang had once again uncovered a gem: a gifted poet as well as sublime beat-crafter. His debut album made hip hop heads explode (one particular Amazon user review has always stuck with me) and he subsequently unveiled his own group, The 7 Wisemen, who released two highly-acclaimed albums while Bronze received an increasingly steady stream of production work for Wu affiliates hungry for the vintage chops (more on those in a minute).

The new record, School for the Blindman, was released yesterday amid high anticipation and, speaking for myself at least, it has definitely met the absurdly high expectations I had. The lyrics are mostly pretty heavy though delivered in short aphoristic lines (he indicated in a recent interview that he's prone to work on a verse for days/weeks to make each line strike the right note), his flow has added some new complexities, and the beats are out of this fucking world. Here's one of the album's bonus tracks featuring The Rza:


"Squeeze the page, please / my blood, sweat and tears
drip off my inscription / no minor incisions 
unless you fail to listen"

Go get it!

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Timbo King - From Babylon to Timbuk2

When the Swarm was upon us in the mid-1990s, Timbo King was leading the pack. He was one of the few artists outside of the 9-member Wu-Tang Clan circle who, right from the beginning, proved he could match up with anyone when it came to clutching mics. The notoriously poor business management of the Wu enterprise left him waiting to receive his time in the spotlight though and his blacktop-hardened street personality didn't soften up to the corporate record execs who preferred to call the shots and this mega-skilled emcee found himself black-listed in the industry.

He continued to stay relevant in the ears of listeners by featuring on albums with Rza, Gza, Killah Priest, and being a part of the supergroup Black Market Militia, but it wasn't until this summer, nearly 20 years after he began his career, that he finally released his debut solo album. He put his best work into it and brought plenty of great production to the table, mostly from Bronze Nazareth. I've got a big review of the record covering every track all written up, just need to make some edits and I will post it here soon. It's definitely one of the best albums of the year.

Here's one of my favorite tracks from the record, a clever takedown of all the industry executives who've been ruining the rap industry for the last decade or so.


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Wu-Tang Clan - Legendary Weapons

Earlier this summer the group released this short compilation album, a sequel to 2009's Chamber Music, with live production from The Revelations and features from rap legends like Sean Price and AZ plus some of the Killa Bee affiliates. The production, despite being handled by a live band, was a bit lacking for me and certainly a step below the similar 2009 showcase. As this might be called The Summer of Bronze, the Nazareth man got to step on to a track next to legends Rza, U-God and Cappadonna to outshine all of them ("tempted by Satan, put a bullet in his diaphragm / Walk around, black clouds and quiet violins").

The most important part of this latest effort, though, was the return of fan-favorite Killa Sin. Sin, like Timbo King, had been impressing everybody for years but never got a chance to shine on his own. These last 5 years or so (maybe longer, I'm not sure) he's been in and out of prison and hasn't put out much music at all. This record hails his return as he and his water fountain flow were featured on two tracks, including a solo track.

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Wu-Tang & Jimi Hendrix - Black Gold

Last year a musician named Tom Caruana released a free mash-up album combining the Beatles and Wu-Tang that was absolutely superb. He deftly weaved together Beatles interviews, quotes, instrumentals, songs, and all kinds of Wu chops for a magic musical tour (the mash-up was entitled Enter the Magical Mystery Chambers). It was so good that Rza actually mentioned it in a verse on the aforementioned Legendary Weapons album.

Caruana just recently released another homage to the Wu that's getting plenty of attention, it's a mix of the bass-heavy flavors of Jimi Hendrix with verses from the Wu and friends (Killarmy gets a song on here as well as other lesser known affiliates). I don't like it quite as much as the Beatles mix but it's no slouch either, I highly recommend it.

Another similar project that caught my attention is Shaolin Jazz - The 37th Chamber, a smooth combo of jazz (both old and new) and classic Wu-Tang material. All three of these mash-up homages (the Beatles, Hendrix, and jazz mixes) are totally free and available for download.

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Tragic Allies - Tree of Knowledge of Good & Evil

Tragic Allies is a trio from Massachusetts that has been putting out great new music steadily for a few years now through mixtapes and free internet tracks but they've yet to release an album. As seems to be a common thread with some of the artists I've mentioned, they announced their record a while ago and it suffered a bunch of pushbacks and delays.

Well, finally, the Tragic Allies debut album is coming. It's due September 27th and features Planet Asia, Canibus, Killah Priest, and (yup) Bronze Nazareth. The reason I mention them here next to all the Wu-Tang stuff is that, while they aren't affiliates or associated with Wu-Tang at all, their new record not only features some Wu legends but they bring that similar style of classic 90s-era hip hop. I've felt for a while now that Tragic Allies are making some of the best rap music in the world, period.

Of all the great music I've mentioned, this track stands next to all of it:


Here is the first single off the new album, "God-gifted" featuring Planet Asia.


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Madlib Medicine Show No. 12: Raw Medicine

Lastly, since I've written so much about Madlib and his Medicine Show series, I should mention that Stones Throw just released Part 12 of the series, a 37-track remix album that features a whole crowd of various emcees including Wu-Tang's Inspectah Deck, Ghostface, Raekwon, Cappadonna and a bunch more. I've only just received it so I can tell you that the artwork is as awesome as usual and the sounds are vintage Madlib, that is, dusty old raw hip hop sounds.

"Keeper of My Soul" by Yesterday's New Quintet

Somebody put together a great video for this track by YNQ (otherwise known as Madlib pretending to be a jazz quintet all by himself). It displays some of the jazz record covers for Madlib's multitude of forays into his father's genre. This is off the first Yesterday's New Quintet album entitled Angles Without Edges. I need to review that one soon. Check out my other Madlib reviews, especially this one about some of his jazz stuff.

More Mind Fusion

"De la musique avant toute chose..."
("Music before anything else")
- Paul Verlaine, Art Poétique

I'd like to share a few more examples of the records that appear on Volume 2 of Madlib's Mind Fusion series I talked about in the last post. The essence of this first song embodies, for me, the whole approach of these Madlib mixes and serves as a nice introduction to the catalogue of forgotten beauties that this musical savant seeks to entertain us with.



This next one is an epic 1960s Italian song with great drums.



That song is by the famous Italian composer Ennio Morricone who also produced the legendary soundtrack to the trilogy of Clint Eastwood spaghetti westerns in the 60s. Of all the great musical notes in that classic film series, the one that I've always been most struck by is the poignant little pocket watch tune that plays an important part in the second film of that trilogy, For a Few Dollars More.



And, last but not least, a glorious explosion of drums and piano, again from Mind Fusion Vol. 2:



(I just want to point out that this isn't even the best mix in the 5-part Mind Fusion series. That would be Volume 3 which contains about 70 minutes of nothing but gems. Unfortunately, there is no extant tracklist for Volume 3 and I've only been able to identify one song, though it's a beauty.)

The Flight of the Oriole

For the last 2 or 3 weeks I've found myself listening almost exclusively to Madlib's Mind Fusion series, a pretty rare set of cds featuring a vast display of old soul-jazz-funk-psychedelic-global-whatever records (there are 5 albums/mixtapes in the series, 2 of them feature Madlib-produced hip hop remixes, 3 of them are diverse DJ mixes from Mind Altering Demented Lessons In Beats' famous 5-ton collection of vinyl and those mixes are superb).

The song above is from Volume 2 of the series (you can see the full tracklist here) and this tune has captivated me from the first time it hit my ears. It's jazz/soul with an old nightclub feel (the singer, Lorez Alexandria, had performed in Chicago nightclubs in the 1950s but this song is from her 1978 album How Will I Remember You?). I'm entranced by the blend of fast-tapping drums, deep bass strumming slowly, and the singer's strong voice and delivery. Her voice darts and floats like a bird as she sings the seductive story of a ladybird, a Baltimore Oriole, using avian archetypes ("no time for a lady to be dragging her feathers around in the snow"). A bird's eye view of the track reveals the full synthesis of meaning, content, and flavorful delivery---her French-sounding pronunciation of the "r" in Oriole even brings to mind the French word orielle which means "ear" and it's as though the temptress described in the song is also tempting the musical ear of the listener (the oriole is, after all, a songbird). It becomes clear that this was all purposely done by this very talented musician, her bio states that her "clearly enunciated delivery...was always highly sensitive to the import of the lyric she was singing" and the info shown at the bottom of the YouTube clip describes her as "superior at interpreting lyrics."

*   *   *

The Baltimore Oriole first received its name because the bird's orange-and-black feathers resembled the coat of arms of Lord Baltimore, a British coloniser in the 1600s who was the first proprietor of the colony of Maryland in North America. The Baltimore Oriole is (surprise!) the state bird of Maryland and, following the pastoral tradition of naming baseball teams after state birds, Baltimore ballclubs have used the symbol of the Oriole for almost 130 years now.

The Baltimore Nine in the 1890s

The original Baltimore Orioles baseball franchise was founded way back in 1882 (the year James Joyce was born). They were a charter member of the American Association, an old professional league that lasted for ten years. When that league folded in 1892, the Orioles joined the National League (yep, the same National League that the Mets and everyone else play in today) and became a powerhouse, winning three consecutive pennants.

The National League during the 1890s was a scary place, the games often filled with violent, dirty play, the umpires were often spat on, punched, or shoved and the fans involved themselves in the game's quarrels to a degree unlike anything we could imagine nowadays. In their tame moments, they were known to hurl rotten eggs or beer bottles at the on-field arbiters. As Bill James wrote in the Historical Baseball Abstract,

 "the fans never actually killed an umpire. They tried. Umpires required police protection countless times, and there was an incident in Minnesota in 1906 in which a crowd got hold of an umpire with apparent intent to do bodily harm, but was dissuaded by a local athlete. A good many umpires have been killed in on-field accidents, some of them in the minors. But if they didn't kill one (deliberately) in the 1890s, then it just wasn't destined to happen, because they sure tried." (pg 53)

During this violent era, the Orioles were known as the absolute dirtiest team of them all. In 1894, the Orioles started a fight on the field in Boston that got so ugly it ended up with the the fans rioting and starting a fire that destroyed the ballpark and 170 surrounding buildings. Led by third baseman John McGraw, who would eventually go on to become one of the greatest managers of all time for the New York Giants, they played rough and they succeeded with it.

But just as the 20th century dawned, the National League decide to get rid of four teams including the Orioles. Members of the defunct team went to the brand spankin' new American League and made their own Baltimore Orioles team though they'd only last a couple of years before moving to New York and becoming the Highlanders (eventually changing their name to the Yankees).

The Orioles of today that we know and love were originally the St. Louis Browns, another team in the early American League, until the franchise transferred to Baltimore in 1954 and took on the name of the famous old B-more ballclubs. The newly minted Orioles stunk during their early years in the American League but they would eventually build up a pretty spectacular team that managed to stay in contention virtually every year from 1960 to 1983, winning three World Series titles along the way.

Those Orioles teams pulled off the exalted feat of playing in the Fall Classic for three consecutive years from 1969 to 1971, though they only won once during that span (in 1970). In 1969, the highly-favored, powerhouse O's went up against the scrappy New York Mets. The Amazin' and lovable Mets pulled off the upset, defeating Baltimore in 5 games, winning their first ever World Championship in a series that featured a handful of legendary moments. Here's the Mets segment from Ken Burns' wonderful baseball documentary:


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Having departed San Diego and lost the luxury of rooting for and seeing a nearby baseball team (the Padres) on the regular, I've found thus far this season that I'm clutching to my Mets fanhood as tightly as ever. I'm now deep in the heart of Texas, the state's two pro ball teams are each at least three hours away from me and I've got absolutely no interest in either of them anyway. I don't have cable, so I can't pick up their games on TV and while I do watch baseball on MLB.tv, I'm blacked out from watching any games involving a Texas team. So, early on in the season while league storylines are still developing, I've latched onto my ol' Mets.

This year's team got off to a terrible start but they've looked pretty respectable lately as their deep offense has awoken from its offseason hibernation. As I mentioned recently, I've been particularly glad to see Carlos Beltran back in the lineup and mashing the ball like he used to. As I cooked dinner the other night, I watched and cheered loudly as Beltran launched three homeruns against Colorado.

This weekend, the Metropolitans make their only trip to the city of Houston (though they do return to Texas to face the Rangers in June) and I've been trying to figure out a way to head over there to see a game but my schedule doesn't allow it and it's a three hour drive each way. I can't help but be annoyed by this, though, because my favorite baseball team is playing within driving distance from here and I'm unable to go see them.

I didn't even get to watch last night's game live as it was blacked out. The Mets went about their business anyway and blasted three monstrous homeruns in a nice comeback win against the Astros. For tomorrow afternoon's tilt, featuring the knuckleball-flinging sensation that is R.A. Dickey taking the hill for the Mets, I'll probably resort to tuning into the game's radio broadcast to keep up with the happenings of the National League New York Nine.

*   *   *

The inimitable Joe Posnanski wrote a nice blog post that briefly examines the reborn Carlos Beltran (leading the NL in extra base hits at the moment) and compares him to Derek Jeter while also painting a humorously accurate and well-written portrayal of New York City and her relationship with her baseball teams. As anyone who's spent time in Manhattan knows, the best way to get a glimpse of what's going on with the local teams is to drop a quarter and pick up the often absurd New York Post tabloid. Sayeth Joe:

"I look to the Post front page for overreaction, for gut punches, for the very thing that New York cops, construction workers, store owners and waitresses and anyone else you might run into would say."

China Gates

It was through Madlib and his cosmic experimental jazz that I first heard of Sun Ra and now I'm finally starting to get into Ra's music. I first heard this obscure track from Ra on an out-of-print mix by Madlib called the Mind Fusion series.

The Summer of Jazz: A Review of Installments 7 & 8 of the Madlib Medicine Show

For the summer months, the Madlib Medicine Show (a one-album-per-month series that the musical mastermind known as Madlib has blessed us with this year) shifted fully into jazz mode with Medicine Show #7: High Jazz in July and #8: Advanced Jazz in August. Although previously I've never been a fan of jazz or even given it much of a chance, Madlib's musical genius sucked me in and got me hooked. All through the summer, my ears were tuned to these new jazz releases and I even went out and purchased some of his previous jazz albums including the excellent debut Angles Without Edges by the one-man band calling himself/themselves Yesterdays New Quintet.

High Jazz is an original jazz album featuring new and unreleased tracks from some obscure and unreleased Madlib jazz projects under pseudonyms like Russell Jenkins Jazz Express, Jahari Massamba Unit,  The Kenny Cook Octet, Joe McDuphrey Experience, and The Big Black Foot Band. It's really a hodgepodge of random new and old tracks but yet it flows together seamlessly into a very nice little album. Overall the sound is very cosmic, almost shamanic sometimes but always (seemingly) done with jazz instruments.

My favorite track is the "live" rendition of "Broken Dreams" by Yesterdays New Quintet. The entire "live" performance, which is almost 15 minutes long, is excellent and has the slightly grainy and a-bit-off-key sound that a live jazz quintet would be expected to have. Except here it's one guy pretending to be five while pretending the five-man band is playing live. It's truly amazing both in thought and result. And, of the three tracks they play, "Broken Dreams" sounds the most wonderful to me with its slowly intoning heavy and deep guitar moan that actually conjures the dream music in the film Inception (how perfect that this album came out right around the same time the movie did). Over that guitar groan another melody chimes in through a piano, then an electric piano, multiple diverse drum sounds, and this all rhythmically carried along, a wagon of instruments rolling down the street producing beautiful song.

It's as though the dark moaning melody that always remains in the vibrating backdrop is the element of a dream. The whole song is a dream although it's musically depicting broken dreams. The dreams are introduced through the hopeful soft-key piano melody and then progressively we hear the sound of the "ruin of all space, shattered glass and toppling masonry," but it's all introduced and executed harmonically. (Note that the live rendition sounds different---better to me---than the original version.)

The harmonic balance of multiple different elements is one of the keys to what makes this music so gratifying and Madlib such a genius. Not only a range of different instruments and sounds but even two or three different melodic tempos are weaved together at the same time creating a musical atmosphere and a wide, spacious, mysteriously cosmic one. Using a different metaphor, Madlib's jazz music is a Jenga tower built from multiple layers of sound and tempo, swaying rhythmically in the wind.

"Reality or Dream" is another example of this. The song feels like the sounds of descending down a tube like Alice down the rabbit hole, grasping on to anything you can and dragging it down with you. There's probably over a dozen different sounds as you descend downwards here. The key recurring motif though is an eerie, Arabian flute that smoothly chimes before getting caught up in the mess of scattered objects, becoming bent and manipulated.

"Space & Time" is the smoothest track on the album, a melodically expanded jazz loop that doesn't venture as far out into experimental realms as some of the other tracks. It's closer to a hip hop beat than anything else here, even by its relatively short length (1:47) compared to the other much lengthier tracks around it. It's followed by the dusty guitar strings and soft melodic drums of "Conquistador," a track that plays like a spaghetti western space exploration flick. Music like this is truly an experience. Like a Disney ride or something. You're lifted and carried through multitudes of metamorphing scenes.

The thirteenth track, entitled "Tarzan's Theme," has stuck with me since my very first listen. It carves little holes through the conscious into the sub- or unconscious. It does this through (again) multiple melodies that are introduced and weaved together. Jangling drums (always a pleasing Madlib specialty) accompany throughout. The song is by "The Big Black Foot Band" and it naturally has that hypnotic and colorful shamanic ring to it. Even the strange and repeated chants of things like "starved killers migrate south"and "teeth, hair, teeth, teeth" seem to just go with it.

The only tracks I don't like are "Electronic Dimensions" (way too electric for me) and "High Jazz" (boring) but they really don't seem to hurt the overall feel of the album at all. They're right at the beginning and I can endure them knowing the gold that awaits over the horizon. It's impressive that, in the midst of a series of 12 albums, in a year that has seen the release of two other very good full-length jazz albums from the same guy (who's most famous for his hip hop production), we have here an album experience which promotes and rewards multiple listens. Most of the songs on here feel like they take you places. You can't really ask for more than that.

...But Madlib is the musician who keeps on giving. And so he followed up his own jazz joints with a mixtape of some of the very best jazz musicians ever. I can describe this latest Medicine Show offering no better than the cardboard tab that came affixed to it:

No. 8 - Advanced Jazz: Imagine an 80-minute music history course taking place in a dusty, hazy studio with wall-to-wall jazz vinyl---records from the past 40 years---jazz, fusion, obscure. This course will not be graded. There will be no lecture. Madlib's at the turntable. Class is now in session.

This "music history course" features audible classes on legends like Miles Davis, Ornette Colemen, John Coltrane, and Sun Ra as well as some of the others you see here crossing the Hudson:

There have been some terrific album covers in this Medicine Show series but this tops them all. Since receiving it, I've kept this CD standing up atop my desk, the small glass-cased image of Miles and his pals looking regally upon my writings.

The first thing you notice about this album is that it's LOUD. The sounds really seem to have been turned up and it works great as you can hear the depths of the live instruments and crackling, dusty old vinyl records. There are ten tracks of varying length, each named for a jazz legend and featuring a hand-picked and nicely-mixed collection of their songs. The opening is lovely: a gravelly voice speaking and settling the listener in for a comfortable musical excursion like a hypnotist preparing a patient ("are you there?") and then the pianos, horns, drums, everything, it all marches in so beautifully that I get the chills every time I hear it even though I must've listened to this opening 20 times by now. It then transitions into a jazz flute rendition that Ron Burgundy would describe as "a little Ham and Eggs."

Unlike the other great jazz(esque) mixtape in this series, Flight to Brazil, this isn't just a bunch of Madlib's favorites thrown together and played with very little interference. Instead, Madlib throws in plenty of his customary obscure skits and interludes while also weaving the songs together like a DJ, letting some play longer than others and maintaining a pretty consistent vibe while exploring the works of many different artists. The height (and hilarity) of Madlib's mixing skills here comes at the transition of tracks 2 and 3 when the former closes with a very serious-sounding man touting a film that he feels "is of great importance" and urging us "to undergo this uplifting cinematic experience" only to lead into the opening of track 3 with its hilarious mock blaxploitation trailer ("if you wanna get it together, and see the brother who predicted the weather, dress your mother up in leather, and see KING PIN").

The heart of this album, its thumping, beating, pulsating heart, is an amazing three-minute-plus drum orchestra performance in the middle of track 3 leading into the saxophone of Pharaoh Sanders. You can hear the end of it here in the promo video for the album but honestly, if you have even the slightest interest in jazz or just enjoy great music, I highly recommend picking this up this CD and hearing it in full. It'll really get your blood pumping.

Track 4, dedicated to Herbie Hancock, opens with words of wisdom that resonate and jump back and forth between each side of your headphones before taking you to new lands musically. This track features my favorite melody on the whole tape, a beautifully smooth piano over drums beginning at the 3:06 mark. It's one of those songs that sticks in one's head and pops up unbidden at random moments. Other highlights include: the entire Sun Ra track (Madlib pays proper homage to one of his oft-referenced favorites), the chilling big band track at the opening of Phil Ranelin's track, the exquisite soul track at the beginning of Deodato, and the closing horns/piano/drums from John Coltrane.

This mixtape is lively, bursting with instrumentation and energy, all delivered by Madlib from dusty old jazz records by some of the best musicians of the 20th century. It's a CD I'll probably go back and listen to 20 years from now and still enjoy. A spectacular collection of music, stitched together like an all-embracing quilt.

Note: We didn't get the expected Medicine Show #9 in September apparently because it wasn't finished on time but we may be getting two of them in October. We're at least assured of getting #10 which will be a collection of 60s and 70s soul and funk. Stay tuned for a full review of that one once I soak it in.

MMS008 Advanced Jazz: Class is now in session

This is the cover for the latest chapter of the monthly Madlib series we've been blessed with this year, Medicine Show #8: Advanced Jazz. The painting is called "Jazzcats Crossing the Hudson" and features jazz pioneers like Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Sun Ra as they make their way towards New York City. Read more about the cover here.

The album is an 80-minute mix of jazz from the last 40 years with Madlib at the turntables throwing in his usual obscure skits and sounds in between the carefully chosen jazz records.* Since receiving this album last week I haven't listened to anything else, just letting it repeat over and over. I've never been a huge jazz fan but with my growing interest for the multifaceted Madlib, especially this year, my audio tastes have witnessed a very pleasing expansion of horizons. The previous Medicine Show, an album of Madlib's original jazz music called High Jazz, helped evolve my ear drums to the richness of this musical genre (although, I should point out that much of Madlib's jazz stuff seems to transcend the limits of any genre except maybe "cosmic music," if there is a such thing). I will have a double review of the Medicine Show's Summer of Jazz written soon but for now I'm still soaking in the sounds of Miles, Pharoah, Herbie, Mingus, and more. I suggest you do that too. You might learn something.

*I've tried to use the Shazam application on my phone to identify the tracks but the app has been completely stumped thus far. Madlib does it again! (Or Shazam sucks)

A Review of the First Half of the Madlib Medicine Show

As if two new jazz albums with two different groups (Young Jazz Rebels and Yesterday's New Quintet, live jazz bands that are really just multiple personalities of one person playing different instruments) and full production on two different albums (OJ Simpson and In Search of Stoney Jackson) in 2010 were not enough, Madlib has also been dropping one album for every month this year in a series called the Madlib Medicine Show. The series consists of 12 albums, six of them containing original unreleased material (during the odd-numbered months) and six specially-themed DJ mixes created from Madlib's 4-ton mountain of vinyl records (released during the even-numbered months).

Like most of Madlib's material, it's being released through Stones Throw Records, a hip progressive indie label that's basically built around the staggering musical output from the myriad-minded Madlib (aka Quasimoto, Yesterday's New Quintet, etc). Stones Throw is known for creating cool album covers (and often abstract artsy ones as you'll see in a sec) and for being vigilant about keeping their music from being leaked out and downloaded. The latter has been especially true with the Medicine Show releases, most of them are hard to find a download link for on the web (which seems unusual nowadays) and so I've purchased all but two of them so far. It's actually pretty cool because, awaiting the arrival of the cd in my mailbox each day (Stones Throw sends them a few days before the official release) and then receiving it and soaking in the artwork while listening to the brand new music is a minor thrill, a flashback to an experience of listening to music that seems to be fading away at light speed.

For the most part I've loved the Medicine Show so far. Let's take a look at each one up until now and their highlights, shall we?

Medicine Show No. 1: Before the Verdict (featuring Guilty Simpson)

Starting off the series is a 17-track hip hop album containing mostly Madlib remixes as well as some new unreleased material, a prelude to emcee Guilty Simpson's later official album produced by Madlib, OJ Simpson (took some time before I realized how cool the title is---OJ is not just the guy in the Ford Jeep, it's also Otis Jackson aka Madlib). This was basically my introduction to Simpson's rap ability (I'd heard him on a few features previously) and, while I love his name, I wasn't too impressed with his abilities initially but they grew on me. His flow is almost always the same, a bit monotonous and simple and the rhymes often witty but unspectacular.

Bright spots: Besides the many little throw-ins and weird, obscure skits, interludes and sounds from Madlib (very similar to Madvillainy 2), I love the beats on "Looking for Trouble", "Lucky Guy" (although it doesn't kick in until halfway through the track after a smattering of comedic old blabberings), "Get Bitches", "American Dream & Future", "Robbery" and also "I Must Love You" is a nice little song. Otherwise this isn't so great, it's actually my least favorite of the six Medicine Show records so far. (The album cover is cool as is the different cover for the 12-inch vinyl collector's edition, you can see a video of them crafting the latter here.)

Medicine Show No. 2: Flight to Brazil

A rich collection of Brazilian jazz, folk, rock, and funk, this 80-minute mix (divided up into 9 lengthy tracks) is one of my favorites of the MMS so far. It is absolutely loaded with excellent instruments and catchy jazz songs, displaying Madlib's fine taste in music no matter where it's from (I later found out this is actually his second mix of old jams from Brazil and, listening to the region's sweet sounds on this tape, his infatuation is understandable). As someone who's unfortunately maintained a pretty narrow selection in musical genres most of my life, it's refreshing to have a taste of something totally different and delivered by a trusted source. Here, Madlib basically stays out of the way (aside from spurts of a woman's voice smoothly echoing that serve as a mixer's motif and the sounds of an airline pilot pointing places out over a grainy PA system) and lets the carefully selected songs play themselves out. This is a perfect album for a long drive, just let it play.

Highlights*: The strings in the song that's around the 2-minute mark, the beautiful folksy Brazilian sounds of the song at 9:30 (looped over and over again by somebody here), the different dimension that the track at 13:00 transports me to, the unbelievable drum/piano ensemble at 17:15 (one of the greatest musical experiences of the year for me), the sweet soothing sounds of Portuguese singing at 25:00ish and also ten minutes later, how the song at 44:11 transports one to a Brazilian nightclub, then the nodding song at the 1 hour 3 minute mark perfectly captures the fatigue from all the listening we've done already gives one last kick to the ear, the closing track encourages you to listen through from the beginning again. A great musical experience, a dreamy flight through the clouds of the cultured South American country and its beautiful audible art.

*The cd version is broken into 9 tracks but I downloaded a version where it's all one continuous track. This is one of the Medicine Shows that I didn't purchase. There's actually a bit of an ethical issue with it as none of the music that's featured is listed or credited at all and yet it's being sold for profit. Read about it here.


Medicine Show No. 3: Beat Konducta in Africa

When this was released I listened to it repeatedly for about 3 weeks straight. It's my second favorite of the entire series so far (behind MMS No. 5: Loop Digga). An immense and diverse (accurately portraying the region it focuses on) 43-track instrumental hip hop album, this is really a musical experience in the fullest sense as Madlib immerses us in the sounds of obscure 1970s African jazz/rock/funk/soul records. It's also something of a musical documentary with numerous interludes detailing facts about the great continent (4 times the size of the United States, 1/5th of the entire land mass on earth), its history (oldest civilizations on earth), culture and music. The Beat Konducta weaves a recurring motif of bongos, bells, and chanting in and out of the lengthy album, sometimes it's abrupt and annoying but aside from that I love this opus.

This was the first Medicine Show I purchased (directly from Stones Throw who sent it almost a week ahead of the release date), it has a beautiful album cover that seems to be in the same vein as the previous Beat Konducta album and, like all the Medicine Show cds, it has no back cover and instead displays the backward disc's art through the back; in this case, the disc is colored with the golden face of a lion and has the words "Madlib Medicine Show No. 3." The liner notes look like a photo album for a group of 70s disco pals in Africa. All the MMS cds come with a removable cardboard tab (unfortunately I threw out the first two I received) describing the contents of the cd you're opening. You can catch a glimpse of it here. Although it's certainly a very different approach, I'm impressed with the way Stones Throw crafts these cds. They are actually worth purchasing instead of downloading the mp3s.

Best tracks: Heritage Sip; Red, Black and Green Showcase; Endless Cold (Lovelost); Tradition; Tear Gas and Bullets for Freedom (listen it on good headphones, the depth of sounds is incredible); Obataive (seems simple but when listened closely to it's an orchestra of about 10 different little sounds contributing); Warrior's Theme (there's a great variety of beats on the album but this is a perfect example the ol' familiar sample-choppin'); Jungle Soundz (Part One); African Map Watch.

Medicine Show No. 4: 420 Chalice All-Stars

 When this was announced I was excited for it but once I received it and started listening I realized "Wait a sec, I'm not really a big reggae or dub fan." It's an 80-minute mixtape of all Jamaican dub, reggae, and roots records. If that's your sort of thing, you'll love this. But I tried getting into by listening to it in full a few times and it just drags on for me.

The album art is very cool, though. The cover shows the Son of Super Ape stealing a truck filled the medical marijuana. The liner notes contain an FAQ on medical marijuana and a thorough listing of all the dispensaries that offer it in Hollywood and East Los Angeles (there's about 100 or so). There are also images of the covers of all the records that have been included in the mixtape.

Parts I like: The very first song, the last song on Track 2, the song around the 1:00 mark of Track 4, the 4-minute mark of Track 4 (a wonderful song that seems to have burrowed itself into a little hole inside my brain), and that's pretty much it.

Medicine Show No. 5: The History of the Loop Digga, 1990-2000

This is undoubtedly my favorite album of the Medicine Show so far. It is just pure hip hop, a collection of over 60 minutes worth of instrumentals from Madlib's early producing history. There are well over 30 beats on here as most of the listed tracks contain at least 2 or 3 different beats molding into each other, sometimes being offered and then quickly taken away (a teaser indeed). The album cover and the comic book inside are ridiculous in a good way.

Favorite beats: I could put the whole record here but I especially love the second beat on Static Invazion; the span of Episode X, Episode XI (just pure hip hop beauty, as pleasing as a refreshing glass of water), Episode XII, Episode XIII is probably the best part of the album; Episode XVIII is lovely; Episode XXIII; and last but not least, Episode VIII.

There was also 30 minutes of bonus material for this album, although it was only included in the vinyl version (and downloadable as an mp3). I have it and it's excellent, I'd like to share it but every time I upload it the Stones Throw hounds find the file and delete it. Here's one of the (best) tracks for free. Right-click and Save As.

Medicine Show No. 6: The Brain Wreck Show

The latest offering in the Medicine Show is the weirdest. Upon consideration, it seems to me like this is a sort of interlude to the entire month-by-month show, a little brain purging before the Medicine Show heads into something totally different (the jazz albums that are coming for the summer months). The official description: "No. 6-The Brain Wreck Show is a 61-minute DJ mixtape of global psychedelic, progressive and hard rock & funk circa 1968-1976, culled from the isolated reaches of Madlib's 4-ton mountain of vinyl." It's a bit hard to get into because of the numerous weird sounds (glass breaking, sirens, Pee Wee Herman), skits and interludes that sound like delusional psychosis. The album cover, with two anthropomorphic rabbits doing it in the woods, is extremely weird as is the material in the liner notes---10 pages of New World Order conspiracy writing by someone named Lungston Hughes. The joke's on us, I guess.

Although there's plenty of audible weirdness, this is Madlib's most heavily DJ'd and mixed of all the albums thus far. It's a true DJ experience as he brings together a whole universe of different material and presents it in a special way. It's a completely different project than the previous two Medicine Show mixtapes (Brazil and Jamaican dub/reggae) in that he doesn't just choose his favorite tracks and let them play. He first drills holes into your ears and then pours in the music.

The Good Stuff: After many listens, I've realized there's a certain way to listen to this album to get the best music out of it. All the good music is on the odd-numbered tracks (there's 9 altogether). The even-numbered ones are mostly drawn out skits and craziness and the music they contain is usually too dark. I especially love the recurring jazz flute leitmotif (first introduced in Track 1) that swings in and out throughout the whole tape even though it's sometimes covered over by strange 60s psychedelic robotic talking. The song opening Track 3 is beautiful. Track 5 has the best material: a great funk/rock/soul type song followed by what seems like Jabba the Hut talking leading into an unbelievably tender and smooth track, then a lengthy 60s-sounding piano organ instrumental to lead into another nice song. All topped off by that lovely flute leitmotif.

And that's the first half of the year and the 12-part series. Next up is an original jazz album. Stay tuned.

The Madlib Invasion is Upon Us

I'm very late with bringing this up, but the great reclusive hip hop master producer known as Madlib (real name Otis Jackson Jr.) gave his first interview in a long time, a cover story in LA Weekly last week. It's definitely worth a read. The article describes his background and who he is, what he's about but he is in the news because of the prolific frequency of high quality material he's been putting out the last few years now, especially this year. In 2010, he's already released 10 full length albums: 6 for his current ongoing monthly Medicine Show series (original unreleased material in the odd months and themed DJ mixes of vintage records in the even months, I'll have a post up about that whole series shortly), two jazz albums under two different jazz bands that are actually consisted of Madlib himself, and full-length LPs produced for Guilty Simpson and the new group Strong Arm Steady, the latter release considered one of the best albums of the year so far.

The piece is very well-written and sums up the so-called "mystique" concisely.

Speculating on Madlib's whereabouts is futile. Forget Twitter — he doesn't even use e-mail. The interstellar infinity of his music indicates liberation from the limitations of gravity and time. Granted, he exists as blood and marrow: two children, lives in a real home in Eagle Rock, and the Gregorian Calendar claims that he's 36. However, he is best understood as myth. In a society with a vampiric lust for information, our primitive neuroprocessors still compute in archetypes. Madlib is the man who wears masks, the witch doctor, the star of the medicine show.