Caravan (Thai).

Thai pop-funk-rock albums seem to be back on top of the list of collectors. Labels like Strawberry Rain are currently capitalizing on this trend, as they reissue records by mythical Thai band Caravan. 

Strawberry Rain already reissued "Kon Kab Kwai", and is now planning on releasing "Antarai American". They also printed a confidential boxset including "Kon Kab Kwai", a live recording and another one from the 90's. The boxset is a very limited edition of 50 copies. Other albums are also limited, and probably already sold out. Check out eBay in a few weeks and get your wallet ready... Meanwhile, enjoy this awesome artwork. 

For previous Thai vibes, dig into the catalog of ZudRangMa Records, directly from Bangkok. 

i'm late.

I've been kept away from this blogging world so I'm trying to catch up a little bit. So here are a few interesting things I want to share with y'all. 

First : "Crate Diggers" finally did it. They got a glimpse into J Dilla's vinyl collection. Okay, this being said, don't get your expectations to high, it's really a quick glimpse. But, what's make it a good moment is how guys like J.Rocc, Spinna, Grap Luva and others go emotional about browsing Dilla's collection. It's been said a lot of times, but Jay Dee wasn't a collector of rarities ; he dug dollar bins, cheap stuff and created magic from dust. So, this episode of "Crate Diggers" is good for history's sake but not to discover incredible stuff. 

Is BadBadNotGood finally getting the recognition they deserve ? After a few years of showcasing talent on the web, they landed a post on Rappcats, Madlib's own website. It's about old stuff you may already know but still, they're going up. 

If you're into French rap, have a go at Starlion's "Jailbreak" EP. Fresh stuff, sponsored by the one and only Grems. And expect some hot stuff from Grems soon, with his "Vampire" album, which will be his last solo album.

J Dilla again, as NPR posted an article will the following title : "Why J Dilla may be the jazz's latest great innovator". A nice read, and you might learn a thing or two about the pope of the beatmakers. 

I've been sleeping on the Red Bull Music Academy lately, but there's always some great stuff to find over there. And here's one, very useful, as the work of this guy is so deep and numerous that it's difficult to decypher. This guy is Fela Kuti of course. And here's the link to "A guide to the work of Fela Kuti". 

More to come. 

We Buy White Albums.

This must be passion in its fullest expression. Think about it : the guy collects as many (original) copies as he can grasp of only one album : the "White" album by The Beatles. And more than that, against the mythical "mint" condition, he prefers the copies which were scribbled, sketched, customized over the years by their former owners. 

Mr. Chang is having an exhibition about his passion (obsession ?), titled "We Buy White Albums" (because, yeah, he would buy your copy) and if you live close by, you should go.  

Ramone's auction.

Obviously, nothing rare in this auction, but if you fancy owning (part of) Joey Ramone's vinyl collection, here's your chance. 

Marcos Valle and hip hop.

As bossa nova legend Marcos Valle is being reissued, it's necessary to acknowledge the footprint he left in the music industry. And in 2013, what better way of doing so than by counting the songs based on sampled Valle's songs ? 

Here is just a glimpse of that, courtesy of Light In The Attic. 

references.

When travelling in India, England, Japan, USA or other places, don't forget to visit those excellent record stores. 

inside Toro Y Moi's studio.

Despite already two albums of chill music under his belt, Chaz Bundick aka Toro Y Moi is doing a name for itself only now. His newly enjoyed exposure gained him magazine articles, broadcasted remixes and videos. 

In this interview, XLR8R did a little tour in the home studio of the man. Always interesting. 

Lookin4Galt.

Following tribute records (OhNo's "Exodus Into Unheard Rhythms" for example), reissues of the records of his Kilmarnock record label, and countless samples, the guys from Gasface jumped into the search for info about Galt McDermot, the Canadian-born composer of the worldwide famous musical "Hair".

The documentary, very entertaining, is streamable on the web, on Dailymotion or on the dedicated website. Get ready for 52 minutes of knowledge.

Trans Orient Express.

You know you need your fix of Asian funk from time to time. So, here you go with this quality radio show, courtesy of the Bangkokg-based record label and store ZudRangMa Records. 

The name of the show ? Simply "Trans Orient Express". 

Mauritania.

Guys, this is just awesome. Everything in this video is epic (or ridiculous) : the hipster attitude of the "reporter", the name of the record store, the stories of the owner, his excellent French... this is that kind of place you wanna be at, be the first to discover and buy out.

i ain't dead.

Radio Vinyle.

The new episode of Radio Vinyle is out ! Featuring The Herbaliser, playing soul and funk. It's a pretty good one.

Elijah Blake.

Could this be the late Christmas gift you were expecting from the music industry ? Possibly. 

This could be as gamebreaking as "Nostalgia,ultra" was once. This R&B project came out of nowhere. But it appeared on various websites and lately on No I.D.'s Soundcloud page, where you can stream it. 

Quoting the bootleg project by Frank Ocean is no mere name-dropping : Frankie and Elijah Blake both earned a small fame by writing for others ; Elijah Blake wrote the break-up anthem "Climax" for Usher, he sung hooks for others (Rick Ross, Game...), he got brought to the Jay-Z's Roc empire and was signed to Def Jam, and is now waiting for his break out opportunity by releasing a free project. 

Just like the Odd Future member. 

Get this "Bijoux 22" EP while you can. For R&B fans only though.   

O-Dub.

Oliver Wang, alias O-Dub, is featured on Dust&Grooves, and tells about his favorite records, his obsessions, his old diggin habits and much more. For those who don't know, O-Dub runs the Soul-Sides blog, casually deejays a few parties once in a while and make compilation records (cover records notably) off his huge collection. 

As usual, nice photographies and interesting Q&A conducted by Eilon.

unpleasant ? really ?

Within the last few days, Mr. Oizo posted tracks on his Soundcloud page, including some under the following category : "unreleased, unfinished, unpleasant".

So far, as I'm listening to his page (yeah, nowadays we can actually listen to pages...), these tracks could have made it to actual physical records without any doubt. But Oizo is kinda used to deliver free stuff over the web, including stuff he would actually sell afterwards. I guess "Flat Beat" earned him enough money for a lifetime.

Oh, and his Handbraekes stuff is pretty decent too. Get ready for your next Parisian parties.

LP storage.

Sick and tired of the milk crates or the Ikea Expedit shelves to store your vinyl records ?

Then you could consider storing and exhibiting your LP's like in your favorite record store with the LP Bin. Pretty neat if you got room for several of them.

Rabih Abou-Khalil.

I had never heard of Lebanese oud player Rabih Abou-Khalil before I watched the latest episode of Radio Vinyle. As an amateur of Arabic music, and far from being a specialist, I was intrigued by the man, his art and influences. The video offered me an opening on Mr. Abou-Khalil's music.

Spinning jazz, rock, classical with equal enthusiasm, it's refreshing to watch and listen to such a smiling musician. French-speaking only.

To extend the pleasure, and to know more about Rabih Abou-Khalil, here's a nice video of a concert he gave in 1990, his discography and his biography. 

Captain Murphy.

The visual in itself is awesome. This is Captain Murphy's album, "Duality". Digital only (for now ?). 

But... who is Captain Murphy ? No other than beat wizard Flying Lotus, rapping under an alias and surrounded by pyschedelic colours and shiny skulls. The album, as FlyLo implied in recent interviews (he said he would release stuff for free on the web after he released "Until The Quiet Comes"), is free (for now ?). It features vocalists, rappers, and dope producers such as, in no order, Madlib, Earl Sweatshirt, Jeremiah Jae, Teebs and others. 

If downloading bothers you, you can stream the whole album as a film on Vimeo. Oh, and I forgot, you can get the instrumentals also... damn, generosity has no bound today. 

By the way, speaking of Flying Lotus, the man has a new video out, for his track "Tiny Torture". The video features music lover, record collector and label owner Elijah Wood. Yeah, that Elijah Wood. 

Spooky as hell. But brilliant.

JD.

The real one now. Jay Dee. James Yancey, J Dilla. Dilla Dawg.

Stones Throw just announced the release of his seminal "Donuts" album as a... 45 box set. Now, I'm wondering : is it strictly business or is it still reasonable ? I mean, why ? Why re-release this gem over and over and over again, on various formats ? Nonsense...

Much more interesting is ?uestlove's DJ set at the Boiler Room, under the patronage of the one and only Red Bull Music Academy. Dilla mood all the way, it's so mellow, so good... it sounds like the perfect music for long winter days spent at home.

The performance is also available for download. Thank the afroman. And Rappamelo.

JD.

Remember when Pharrell said his favourite producer was "Jay Dee. But not Jermaine Dupri" ? Well, this post is about Jermaine Dupri. Frankly, I tried to watch this latest episode of Crate Diggers with a good spirit. But, what can I do, I find the guy to be much less interesting than the previous collectors featured in the series, babbling about himself and his own stuff. Go for it anyway...

psychedelic culture.

While browsing the internet, I found this incredible gold mine about psychedelic culture. The website, obviously serving first as a shop for the owner's book, hosts many reviews of obscure records and books, as well as interviews of actors of the psych movement. 

As few resources allow to expand one's knowledge about what stands as a not-so-well-known cultural movement, this website is very interesting to dive deep into it, and more notably into the musical part of it. Head to the "Attic" section.  

Gilles Peterson's classic stuff.

Gilles Peterson is entirely dedicated to music and diggin, body and soul : DJ, radio host, restless digger across the world... 

He also seems to be a nice guy. His last treat to date : a few episodes of his radio show on BBC made available for streaming. That includes exclusive mixes, interviews, live performances. All this on Tumblr. 

diggin story.

One of those crazy stories that keep diggin alive. You wish.

DJ Toomp.

The latest addition to the "Crate Diggers" video series by Fuse : vinyl enthusiast and synth-full production specialist DJ Toomp.

DJ Jazzy Jeff.

You could say Jeff never disappoint. True. And he proved it again, by providing the funk and the disco to the people, for free, on a divine "Block Party Vol. 1" mix. So far, it's the best way to share Jeff's musical childhood memories. All infos, including the tracklist, are on DJ Jazzy Jeff's official website. 

And while you're in the mood, drop an ear on Jeff's and Shorkut's Live @ The Do-Over performance. Always a great time. 

diggin in China... if that's possible.

Looks like diggin ain't dead in China after all. 

An article of the China Daily talks about an exhibition that were held in Shanghai, presenting records to the people. Not sure that die-hard diggers would have found interesting stuff, but it's good to read about stories of Chinese people who never stopped diggin despite the Cultural Revolution and the (almost) total absence of vinyl records left in mainland China. 

Another article, by CNN, lists two shops in Shanghai. 

Here, you get other addresses, though Uptown Records seems to be quite a reference out there. I'm not calling this post a "diggin guide" because it's not consistent enough, but I guess that's the best deal you'll get about diggin information in Shanghai. 

And for tips about online diggin in China, head to here... damn, that's so far away from the good old Discogs...

30 year old.

You might hate the format, its size, the ridiculous plastic cases, the metal color of it, the fact that you can't watch it turn while playing... but you surely have memories with it. The CD, as in Compact Disc, is 30 year-old. 

Pitchfork collected memories about this anniversary : first CD bought, outdated mix CDs, artwork nonsense, etc. 

30 year old ? The way down the hill ?

The Man With The Iron Fists.

RZA has been heavy on the promo lately, for his movie "The Man With The Iron Fists" and for the related soundtrack. Bundles of this soundtrack (including movie-inspired music, score and other goodies) are available through Get On Down and Soul Temple. Though die-hard Wu-Tang fans might be disappointed that the production is actually not 100% RZA (considering that the score he did for "Ghost Dog" was magnificent), the overall quality of the music is way better than a lot of recent Wu-Tang labelled-products.

On the rap side of it, it is a good blend of both the 1990's and the 2000's. Soul has not been forgotten, as the record includes a few Stax songs. As for the score, it's a well balanced mix of hip hop, soul and classical music. After all, a remixed version of "Shame On A Nigga" opens the movie. Bold.

But what impressed me the most about this all project (music and film) is the artwork. Simple, modern, diverse, inspired... I want those as posters !

By the way, GQ has a 4-page article about RZA and the movie. Entertainment Weekly lists RZA's influences for this movie.

where did the drums go ?

Fair question asked by the ol' man of Unkut (no, that's not only Booba's textile brand) : where did the drums go ? 

Hearing contemporary rap music and that new beat scene that's been rising for quite a few years now, is like going on a quest for those good old drums. It's not about the 808 and 909 trend reintroduced by the Dirty South sound, but about major critically acclaimed producers such as Madlib and Alchemist. Looping sometimes works by itself, and sometimes, it needs additional work, such as pumping up drums in it. 

Well, raving ain't gonna solve this issue, but by reading Robbie's rant, it may pop out of your head "yeah, that's right, where did those drums go ?".  

At the same time, I can't help thinking of new unsigned hype Black Dave, who just dropped the drums-heavy single "On Da Map", which reminisce of Masta Ace's best years... well, Black Dave also did "Black Donald Trump", which feature a kick-only-and-no-snare driven beat... so the question stands !

the best chop...

It's been a while since I last talked about Jay Dee. Well, here I go again with a new video by Bling47, showing House Shoes going over what "might be the greatest chop that Dilla ever came up with" : "Johnny Don't Do It" by 10cc, for "Waves".

Beautiful.

And while you're at it, the guy dropped a lot of these lately.