FlyLo.

Fans of Flying Lotus, the man announced his come-back for October, 1st, with a new album called "Until The Quiet Comes", out on Warp.

This album will include 18 tracks and a few selected featurings, like Erykah Badu, Thom Yorke, Thundercat, etc.

Flying Lotus will support the release with a tour in the US and Europe, through September, October and November.

To coincide with this announcement, FlyLo posted a new "Lovers Melt" mix, the 3rd one in his summertime series.

And if it wasn't enough, a track produced by Flying Lotus got launched by Adult Swim. The vocals were provided by Earl Sweatshirt and Captain Murphy. The instrumental is just a delight. See by yourself. And there's more on his Soundcloud page. 

Pharaway Sounds.

There's a new actor in the record label landscape : Pharaway Sounds.

I think the name says it all, it's supposed to be about global grooves. I couldn't find a dedicated website, so all we know comes from the Light In The Attic website. Although the website talks about two releases ("Zendooni", an Iranian pop compilation, and a Bunalim compilation), it seems a third one ("Khana Khana", another Iranian pop compilation) is already scheduled for September.  

I haven't laid my ears on these records yet, but I inted to, as I'm always interested in music from Middle East and the Persian Gulf. For those who don't know, Bunalim is a Turkish psych rock band, which, like other members of the Turkish psych scene of the 70's, perfectly melted traditional influences with rock music, thus crafting a unique sound. Original records are simply impossible to find, so all you can get is reissues by Shadoks, and now by Pharaway. Don't miss that one, Bunalim will blow your mind. 

"Zendooni" is a promising release, as it goes beyond the usual Iranian pop stars we know, such as Googoosh and Kourosh Yaghmaei. Don't get me wrong, I love both of them, but they have been the main features on quite a few compilations. So it's nice to hear something new, new names, new flavors. And "Zendooni" seems to provide.

supportin' Cody.

As I really want to "contribute" to Cody ChesnuTT's next album seeing the light of day, I'm linking again towards his Kickstarter page, so that anyone could put his dollar on this promising project. The album is co-produced by the talented Patrice (remember this ?).   

For those who need their memory refreshed, here are the highlights of Cody ChesnuTT's career so far : "Look Good In Leather", "The Seed" (and its cover by The Roots)...

Damn, I'm refering to an album that was released 10 years ago... I remember being it after reading about it in a magazine. "The Headphone Masterpiece" blew my mind instantly (with my personal fav track), maybe because it breathes geniune passion, having been made with so minimal gear. 

Alright, whatever, support Cody.

still diggin'.

Ever since I started this blog, I've been trying to link all videos I could find of crate diggers presenting their own collection. 

Here are two famous record collectors (and recording artists, as DJ's) : King Britt, via the excellent Dust&Grooves, and Peanut Butter Wolf, from the "Crate diggers" series of Fuse. 

Ya dig ?

get down, get down.

It's summertime, music is everywhere (or should be) and so is vinyl today (or should be). If you thought the vinyl come-back is an isolated phenomenon, think again. It's global. And recent newspapers articles prove it. 

Here's what's happening in Korea right now : gadget-fatigued Koreans return to vinyl. And love it, as much as Japanese do. Now, if you planned a trip to Korea to satisfy your greed for rare vinyl, prepare your bank account and wallet. This in-depth article explains the reasons of such high prices. 

Same thing in India, with local people recently rediscovering their old records and the artists who are so much wanted in Western countries. 

And more surprisingly, the highly superficial Dubai is discovering vinyl, through expats and reissues of course, as the city has no history of record printing. 

So, one of the characteristics of this come-back seems to be the focus on vintage music. People would get introduced to previously released music through the music. It makes sense. It is much more compliant to the original artist's idea than CD reissues... and gives the feeling of connecting to a previous era. Actually, numbers prove that old records are now outselling new ones. 

But still, record stores are closing here and there. And people gather just to listen to vinyl records. 

Oh, and by the way, "Purple Rain" was choosen by Rolling Stone as the coolest summer album of all time. I thought you should just know. 

Def Jam, still delivering the heat.

Very recently, the legendary rap label Def Jam released two major albums, both for their authors and for the evolution of Black music.
After taking the web by storm with non-music related matters, Frank Ocean, member of the Odd Future posse, launched his real debut (let's do like Def Jam and consider "Nostalgia, Ultra" not to be an album, even if I think its quality could earn it the title), "Channel Orange". Filled with modern pop and really interesting instrumentations and experimentations, Ocean's album instantly placed him as a new heavyweight in nowadays r&b. 

When you mention in the same sentence "modern pop" and "experimentations", it is quite obvious to think about Pharrell Williams and the Neptunes. By taking a look at the credits, it is a confirmation that Pharrell might be responsible for a big part of the atmosphere of this well-crafted album. 

All in all, "Channel Orange" is the album of a newly revealed musician, who is good at songwriting and setting a mood. 

The other essential album is "Life Is Good" by Nas. Needless to say, the rap giant can never escape from the reference to "Illmatic", arguably the best rap album of all time. He sometimes came close to the quality displayed in "Illmatic" but also disappointed a lot of people with other efforts. But his abilities stayed untouched. With the help of Salaam Remi, Nas crafted good songs and albums. "Life Is Good" saw Chicago-based (and Kanye West's mentor) No I.D. helping Remi to give Nas a cohesive album. That's what "Life Is Good" is : a cohesive effort, made to stay. 

With this album, Nas tried to adapt to the evolution of the music market, by releasing songs way before the official release of the album. "Nasty" dropped first, followed by "The Don", "Daughters", "Loco-motive" etc. Easily one third of the album was known before the release. Still, these tracks blew a lot of fans' mind, and created enough buzz to make this album a must-have on the day of its release. 

After 20 years of career, Nas looks back and gives interesting interviews, like he did for NPR. His status also earns him the headlines of major publications, like the NY Times.

Spin Clean.

I'm considering buying one. Anyone tried ? 

Beat Junkies.

As a vinyl lover, maybe you're into turntablism. Maybe not. 

Well, whatever, the world famous Beat Junkies, one of the main DJs crew, celebrate this year the 20th anniversary of the crew, which was founded in 1992. 

If you don't know much about them, you're welcome to watch the documentary (it's quite short, around 14mn long) they did under the patronage of LRG Clothing. And if you do know about them, you're entitled to watch it, as you could learn a thing or two about the crew. 

J.Rocc, D-Styles, Rhettmatic, Shorkut, Babu and the other members, as well as friends, opened their box of memories...

Dusty Groove America.

If you're a record addict, there might be chances that you're a regular customer of Dusty Groove, or at least a casual visitor of their website. 

Well, in the upcoming weeks, you might find that their stock has increased dramatically. That would be caused by the recent massive purchase the Dusty Groove company made : the record collection of the Chicago-based radio WGN. 

To give you an idea of what we're talking about here, the collection dates from the 1950s and counts around 45000 records, in various formats : LPs, 45s, 78s and even CDs. 

I guess that soon enough, they'll be available on sale. Expect surprises and rarities. 

London calling.

There's no denying that the United Kingdom birthed some of the most influential musicians and artistic movements of the 20th century. 

As a celebration of this statement, German-French TV channel Arte broadcoasted a 4-episode series about pop culture in the UK, mostly through other art forms like photography, design, graphism, fashion etc. There's even an episode dedicated to the making of this culture : this is music marketing as explained by pioneers of rock music.  

Jimmy.

No, it's not about Jimi Hendrix. It's about Jim Morrison. Maybe you missed the date. 41 years ago, Jim passed away in obscure circumstances in Paris. 

nu-soul news.

Alright, maybe not strictly nu-soul, much more r&b news, but D'Angelo sure is nu-soul, as he almost invented the genre. 

Following his incredible come-back earlier this year, D'Angelo keeps providing people with his off the hook liver performing abilities. The last one was given at the BET Awards, and is downloadable here. 

Another friend of The Roots and Okayplayer, the unique Cody ChesnuTT, is planning on releaseing his new album really soon. To do so, the author of "The Seed", needs money. 

This being said, I take profit of the occasion to elaborate a little bit on this old-new phenomenon : patronage (or sponsorship). For centuries, it has been a way of living for artists, which, most of the time, has ensured them with freedom of creativity. I'm not far from thinking that this is the best system for artists to make a living out of their art. 

With the new platforms of patronage for artists, such as Kickstarter or My Major Company, it's actually this old system that is coming back. The principle is simple and healthy : if you like an artist enough, you can pledge and participate in the financing of his projects. And considering you sometimes get to have special items from the artist in return, it's a good deal. 

So, back on Cody's next album, it sounds promising from the first track we heard, "Everybody's Brother", performed live both in a recording studio and on stage in Paris yesterday. To fund his "Landing On A Hundred" album, Cody ChesnuTT needs $20,000 and you can contribute on Kickstarter. 44 days to go.

Considering the creativity displayed on "The Headphone Masterpiece", "Landing On A Hundred" will be great for sure. 

And last but not least, as announced a few weeks ago, Frank Ocean will release his debut proper album "Channel Orange" soon. Among the featurings, you will hear Earl Sweatshirt, John Mayer and André 3000. 

Again, this sounds promising.

Muggs.

When speaking about West Coast hip hop sound, one name comes to everyone's mouth : Andre Young aka Dr. Dre. But Dre only represents one kind of sound. 

From California, Muggs started a whole different sound, with bands like Cypress Hill, Soul Assassins and House Of Pain. It was darker, more New York-like. More rock and latino influenced. 

Remember "Insane In The Brain" ? "How I Could Just Kill A Man" ? "Boom Biddy Bye Bye" ? "Jump Around" ?

In the latest "Crate Diggers" episode, Muggs goes through all his influences. The good thing is he's really talkative. As always, very interesting.

in the news.

Here are a few articles about vinyl that have been published on the web recently. 

First, one bad example of how to turn our passion for vinyl into a soulless topic : "SoundStage direct connects audiophiles to hard-to-find vinyl LPs using site seartch from SLI Systems". This was issued by the Wall Street Journal.

Then, something about a guy who tells people to reconsider selling their records in such events as garage sales. Why ? Because sometimes they don't know the value of their records and sell them for much less than their actual value. 

Now, I don't know what to think of this... It feels like the guy spits in his own plate, as he confessed having benefited from that on many occasions and indeed found some true rarities.

Gizmodo chose to explain what's up with the John Peel's project, which must be one of the most interesting initiative of the vinyl world lately.