pt2.
isolee - cant sleep all night (playhouse)
title cut seems like isolee doing his take on metro area sorta i guess,
still got his kinda abstract isolee touches, some strange effects and
sounds..kinda cool vox, processed various ways..nice bassline tho (this is
where i hear the ma influence). overall a little too...something. weird for
the sake of weird at times. but still good. 'today' is a surprise, with
lotsa guitar (from fuzzy to acoustic), nicely sung longing vox
"galaxyyyy"...with a slow housey beat and some fuzzy synth..it reminds me a
lot of a modern produced velvet underground actually! i like it. 'lost' is
more isolee with a slight metro area influence, but more of a house kinda
groove than 'cant sleep..'...its pretty good. quality record but somehow i'm
not totally convinced by this m.a./smooth disco influenced stuff -- a little
bit flat somehow.
iz & diz - unnnhhh (classic)
highhh quality house! 'love me right' is full of the catchy little jazz
riffs like iz&diz are known for, great creeping funk bassline, great keys on
top, nice playing with structure...just top quality house. some muted vox
samples from prince in there too but not at all overdone, very
sparse..smooth. 'unnnhhh' is more of a chunky house groove compared to the
other side, wicked chunky intricate dx (i think?) bassline, prescription-y
beats (how many times can i use that as adjective? a couple more, you'll
see!!), more regular use of prince vox samples than the other side, a couple
string samples, some nice keys low in the mix...this track is all about that
bassline..very joshua..prince song sampled is "sheila" btw (i think)
joshua - hustlin' (select)
pretty different record for joshua imo! '4 her' is more jackin' than usual,
lotsa short little beeps and choppy vocal samples, real tight little chord
stabs, little bits coming and going, very simple bassline, some occasional
indiscernible vocoder, but some beautiful shimmery chords over the top of it
all too..great beats. almost too busy, a little more west coast sounding
than usual maybe, but still nice. 'hustlin' is noisy! full of beeps and loud
clavs and cowbell, crashin beats, some kinda goofy "whoowhooooo" samples,
some "hustlin'" samples...pretty nice bleepy bassline, and simple deep
organny chords but maybe too crowded this time...noisy! but funky too and
cool to hear joshua doing something kinda different..
kaizer n.d.atl - dirty south dirt (late nite essentials)
ohhhh man this is nice -- title track has real natural live organic
house-but-slightly-broken beats (dope congas and sticks and some well placed
extra kicks), beautiful theo p. kinda chords and understated lovely
melody...simple subbassline..there's another mix called the "String version"
but afai-hear it doesnt have strings haha and is awful similar. "emerging
from under" is more familiar sounding, more of a familiar beat, but not in a
bad way at all, overall kinda reminds me of brett dancer..pretty raw, with
long organ pads and nice keys that arent all polished and jazz-dowg, more
improvised and raw sounding, simple but nice bassline that sounds a lot like
a jazz/standup bass...it doesnt do a lot, but the bass is nice and the raw
organ grows on you..very nice record from the atl!
kemit sources - an ka sein/pas an tombe (ismaa)
from 2002...absolutely beautiful stuff. great warm beats full of interesting
percussion covered with lovely chords (sounds like
rhodes..)...french-african vox...perfect summer music...to be played
alongside cesaria and into kdj/theo..i wanted the k.s. with i-cube remix but
it was out of stock and this was in for $4. anyways this is so lovely and
great. perfect.
moodymann - silence in the secret garden (single) (peacefrog)
probably needs no review, i'm late, anyways ok the title track is one of my
favorites from the album, but then "trak eighteen" which isn't on the album
is easily one of my latest favorites from kdj too, more slightly techno
tasting house, creeping organny bassline and dark strings, little high
pitched nuances to the bassline, great sound design..almost has a circussy
feel know what i mean haha but just enough to come off as kinda playful and
dark..."emotional content (92 cassette)" is aight, starts off like its gonna
be a storming song but doesnt do much after the first few measures except
repeat itself, kinda a goofy pitched up sample but i dig it, but its a
little overused..big hard 909 kicks...probably nice in a mix but not the kdj
that works at home like so much of his more recent stuff..
mute - direct cuts (running back)
beautiful house stuff from germany, this stuff is....prescription-y!! really
tho, these guys must be really into ron trent...lots of piano chords that
sound straight up like r.t.! "ocha" has a great r.t. style chord groove,
simple deep bassline, eventually some verrry lovely higher chords get added,
ohhh...towards the end these sorta acid-y notes get added and a bit of
sparse-n-lowinthemix sax, it doesnt ruin the song or anything but i think
they are too much, the simple groove of the chords and the bassline could've
carried the 8 mins by themselves. "never" has nice chunky conga and snare
programming ala c'n't altho softer (not as raw), and a nice vocal sample
saying guess what ('never'), very lowkey deep chords which only get a bit
brighter in the last 30 seconds, classyyy..the b-side has "direct cut" with
a kinda wet sawtooth bassline, r.t.-y chords, nice melody, very nice..and
"bensono" which is my favorite on the record, nice understated disco-y
b-line and more of those r.t. style chords, some stuttering sampled keys,
some tasteful laidback sax low in the mix...will definitely be checking this
label more for my prescription fix
pepe bradock - 4 (atavisme)
highly reccomended on this list, i'm late again. "4" itself is built on nice
deep jazzy samples that sound verrrry familiar, i'm thinking maybe shake
sampled this same song..?? sounds a lottt like what was sampled for "detroit
state of mind" (i think thats the one), but different samples...i dunno i
been meaning to ask him if he recognizes it..it's very nice and all and will
mix great with the shake song but somehow i was hoping for something a
little different, maybe more synthy or something i'm not sure -- still very
nice tho. "intrusion" is weird, droning dark techno-house with a metallic
snare, that doesnt do a whole lot until it freaks out for a very few
measures at about ~3.5-4 min mark, into crazy high pitched jackin bubbling
techno with evil mangled piano-y chords, but then it goes back to that dark
groove for another 2 mins, then we get some sampled french
circus/carnival/street musician music with the crazy techno bit churning
away quietly underneath (gradually getting louder), for 2 mins. interesting
and weird, i like it, but i want a song made out of that bit from 3.5-4
mins! guess this rec will be fun to mix with all around tho.
russ gabriel - in the boat (nepenta)
dooopeee pretty straight forward house for russ! "move it to the music" is
funky as sh!t, rhythmic beep-beep-beeps ala cc (which turn into organ chords
later), nice horn samples, simple sampled b-line that is a half-phrase (the
part it leaves blank makes it all the more funky and catchy) great
congas..cowbells...lovely little melodic parts..plenty of touches and keys
and oh and great italo-y/80's rnb synth chords too! awesome. maybe that
sounds like a crowd of sounds but it's real open. "skating on thin ice" is
more stripped down and simple, more sweet electric organ, great bassline
played live by guest tnfon dimntov (hah what?? sp?), great dusty snares
layered with very nice cymbals, and a melody that is so catchy that comes
in, sort of reminding of the great hooks on that nebraska record on soul on
wax.."corn on the cob" sounds a lot like kdj actually, big deep simple
growling bass, 3 simple descending chords, great live sounding sloppy claps,
muted simple vox (not words, just vocalizing y'know), simple and nice
congas...subtle variation throughout..excellent house record from russ!!
thick as thieves - really fast (big bear)
great disco cutups/edits sampling i have no idea what. "really fast" has a
sort of early (and fast! haha) hiphop beat, some female vox that sound
almost like those voices in ma4's "miura", some disco strings, some more vox
"i can boogie down", some big echo fx etc..i am pretty picky on disco
strings and cheesey "boogie" vox, and fx, but its a dope cutup, real smooth
and natural sounding.."h.g.wells" is more of a cutup funk one, those dope
rnb-italo chords i have a weakness for, dope slap bass (another weakness),
big claps, organ stabs, bits of whiney lead synth, it's great. "bentover"
almost sounds like very mutated peter jacques band, dope straight beat and
congas, snatches of cutup breathy male vocals saying "house", some nice
delay and reverse fx, wet and otherwise spacey sounds coming in and out,
verry nice! no 909 beats or anything like that in this stuff, just beefed up
loops of original disco beats..which makes a world of difference between
edits/cutups instead of cheesey clubby sample trax..
thick as thieves - my first keyboard (m.v.m.)
more edits, this time "my first keyboard" sounds more along the lines of
disco train/dance reaction style disco -- very open sounding stuff, with a
kinda-cheesey-but-dope chunky delayed bassline and a big old reverbed disco
beat, with a nice breakdown/chorus section with another nice bass part too,
little touches along the way (even a little guitar towards the end), pretty
simple but very nice! "werds out" is uhh along the same lines, but more
stripped down -- more of a simple sparse bassline with tricky delay, nice
claps shakers cowbells and synth woodblocks (a couple nice woodblock
melodies), some occasional vocal yelps and some other sampled and mutated
(80's) rnb vox bits too, some nice slap bass, some cheeeesey ass toms, a
pretty dope 80's (very) rnb synth solo that ends it..kinda cheesey but very
nice record if you like these sorts of things hehe ( i do)!!
three chairs - album sampler (3 chairs)
yeah i'm late again....i had to to set the tonearm verrrry light to get this
to play, luckily i didnt try playing it much with it heavy and slice up the
grooves..."3 chairs theme" is nice very chill stuff, nice deep rhodes or
something, bits of horn, nice vocal bits back in the mix, great claps, a few
big chunky dirty synth bass notes etc etc!! why do i bother describing!? "no
drum machine" is actually mostly no drums, just some loose tambourine and
claps and sticks a real nice walking and creeping phased/flanged bassline,
some talking and wigged out hootin and hollering in the bg, altho
occasionally some kicks creep in..especially towards the end, along with a
dope chord riff sounding like its coming out of a clock radio..."all over"
was the big surprise to me, and last time i will say it, but its
prescription-y as hell! haha...minto thinks it may even sample the joshua
record on balance, well i dunno, but sure sounds JUST like some prescription
chords..some simple deep humming bassline, some deep longing organny stuff
drizzled on top, kinda sloppy but pumping beat...i like a lot of stuff that
sounds inspired and imitative of old prescription stuff, but this really
fuses it with the 3 chairs sorta sound and i love it..
thanks to everybody for the reccomendations, reviews, and bigggest thanks
for those of you that hooked me up with some of these records!
jt
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