Earl.

Earl Sweatshirt was a wonderkid when he dropped the video of "Earl". Disgusting, brilliant, shocking. After an exile in the Pacific Ocean, he came back apparently more mature (while still having the lifestyle of a teenager), but kept his lyrical genius, that could be qualified as hereditary, considering who his father is.

Now, Earl is ready to shock the world again. He released a few teasers of his next album, "Doris". Needless to say, "Chum" and "Whoa" met the expectations. 

One remark though : a newbie as a producer under the moniker of RandomBlackDude, it might be tempting to place several beats on your own album. Let's hope Earl doesn't do this mistake. Let's hope he'll let elite guys handle the producing. 

The Fader tried to outrace all the media by writing an article about the kid. 

Françoise.

Lady Françoise Hardy talks about her vinyl memories and a bit of her life.

Not the best episode of Radio Vinyle, but what the hell... Françoise is a goddess.

Jeff Jank.

More coverage for cover art. 

Jeff Jank is a rare man. You won't easily find a picture of him, but if you're into hip-hop (or even jazz), you certainly know his artwork for the Stones Throw label. 

Nothing Major got an interview with the cover art designer who once shared an apartment with Madlib, Peanut Butter Wolf and Egon. Might have been a record digger's dream.  

cassette tapes.

I may have mentionned it earlier on this blog, vinyl is not the only analogic (some would say "old") format that is gaining back success these days. Cassettes are also getting back. Actually, the little plastic boxes never left in some countries ; they lead the show in the third world, mainly in Africa and Asia.   

Bandcamp recently posted an article about the come-back of tapes, stating for example that the sales in UK alone tripled last year. 

In the world of diggers, there is of course the unique Awesome Tapes From Africa, always on the run to unveil marvelous African sounds. The blog indeed announced the next release, a tape by Hailu Mergia, an Ethiopian musician who once in a while gets the internet mad with his one and only vinyl album. The guy behind the blog, Brian Shimkovitz, can even drop mixes made of tapes, and tours around the globe.

All in all, tapes are a solid format, that is here to stay. 

Abdul Mati Klarwein.

For those who wonder about the beautiful cover of Onra and Buddy Sativa's last album as Yatha Butha Jazz Combo, you should know it's a detail from a painting called "Conceptual Tree" by artist Abdul Mati Klarwein, king of visionary psychedelia, who died in 2002. 

Recently, Frank151 took the opportunity of this release to sit down with Klarwein's son, Balthazar, to talk about Mati's art.

The story of Klarwein is a one-of-a-kind : born in Germany when the Nazis seized power, raised Jew in Palestine, he fled to Paris when it became Israel. He then lived all around the world, meeting great artists who influenced his style and whom he influenced in exchange. It's easy, for example, to link his style to Salvador Dali. 

Among his work, there are a lot of album covers, such as the mythical "Bitches Brew" by Miles Davis, and "Live-Evil" by the same Miles Davis. Other clients include Buddy Miles, Earth, Wind & Fire, Eric Dolphy, Leonard Bernstein, The Chambers Brothers, Santana, The Last Poets, Osibisa, Joe Beck, and even Malcolm X. 

The bound between Mati's art and music was immortalized in a book, titled "Mati and The Music: 52 Record Covers 1955/2005", a limited edition of 500 numbered copies including a double album by the great Miles. It seems that it's still available online. 

More of Klarwein's work is displayed on his website.

Rasa.

You can find this record, "Everything You See is Me" by Rasa, at every record store. You've probably seen it a hundred times, smiling at the overestimated pricetag as you got it for peanuts. 

But do you know the story behind this record ? Wax Poetics tells you about it. 

no accident.

There's no coincidence. Remember when I was writing about Giorgio Moroder a few posts ago ? Well, it appears that, not only the man is featured on the new Daft Punk album, but he also has some new music out on his own.

And this is what it sounds like :

Benny Soebardja.

This interview by It's Psychedelic Baby Magazine should already be a piece of history. This awesome blog managed to get an interview from the most seminal rock musician who emerged from Indonesia. And, once again, you have to think about what it was to play rock music under a dictatorship... 

Soebardja founded many groups (The Peels, Shark Move, Giant Step, Lizard), even played solo, and is recognized as one of the best psychedelic artists of Asia. His sound is raw, fuzzy, almost violent sometimes... jubilatoire.

The label Strawberry Rain reissued in 2011 and 2012 several albums of Benny, in very limited editions. It was preceeded by Shadoks which reissued the Shark Move album, "Ghede Chokra's", in 2007. Also a limited edition, as usual with Shadoks. 

So, go read that interview, you'll learn a thing or two about the man and his passion for music. 

Ray.

I don't update this blog as much as I would like to. But I try to make it relevant. So, while Banco's album is in the air, I wanted to share another loss, one that touches me particularly as I have been living with his music as a huge influence for most of my life. We lost Ray Manzarek, the guy who gave The Doors this incredible vibe, playing both keys and bass (actually, bass on keyboards). 

I don't want to turn this blog into a graveyard, only talking about dead people... but, well, most of the musicians I admire are dead. I'm quite satisfied with the treatment Manzarek's death is having over the web right now, as every newspaper is paying its tribute. 

To remember the genius of this man, here's a playlist made by Rolling Stone. And the statement published by Wax Poetics. Among countless tributes.