French fonk and other musical bits

Edited for late night typos like masterming

Quick run down of some new music related bits and some other stuff I’ve come across since being employed to sit in front of a computer again.

First up, I’ve just finished a new Rhythm Incursions podcast. Grab it here, play it loud. Mini feature this month is on French beat maker Onra, who’s been dropping some seriously interesting stuff since I first came across him earlier this year. The ‘Chinoiseries’ beat CD is a must listen for anyone into beats and flipping samples. Also looks like he has an album coming later this year. Elsewhere on the show there’s more French fonkery with Le n?ko and music from Nosaj Thing, Jamie Vex’d, Jahtari, Blockhead, Flying Lotus, Daddy Kev and more. Doing the R-I podcasts has been really good fun, and it’s made me realise just how much good music has been coming out in recent years, especially on the whole inspired by hip hop but taking it somewhere new tip.

Second down, there’s some new video podcasts up on Turntable Radio, the long awaited live show from D-Styles and Shortkut, to be followed this saturday by the interview I conducted with them last December. Yes late would definitely be a correct word for this podcast. But you know life has a habit of getting in the way.

If you ain’t subscribed to either, what the hell is you waiting for?

Elsewhere on the internets I’ve been finding more and more interesting blogs and sites (aka I have a job that involves me sitting at a computer all day long again) and stumbling across plenty of interesting bits in the process.

Gunshots are hype and fun
DJ C from Mashit has put together a Paper Planes mega mix of sorts, which you can download here. I’ve been singing the hook all day, it’s mad addictive. I’m late to the party as usual, but I gotta admit Diplo’s production on this M.I.A track is really nice, with the gunshots reminding me of the hype I feel/felt when listening to certain grime productions that also use gunshots. It’s simple, dumb but really good fun which I guess is the whole point of it in the first place. The mega mix covers a whole bunch of recent remixes of the track from mainstream rappers, and while listening to what is essentially the same beat for 20 minutes might seem boring, it actually works. Gunshots are most definitely in again as far as I’m concerned.

RZA razor sharp
I stumbled across the pretty sweet Metal Lungies blog about two days ago where I find this. It’s called a beat drop, and it’s a series of in-depth posts where they get a bunch of hip hop bloggers and artists to select and comment on productions from one producer. This one in question is for RZA, the mastermind behind most of the Wu Tang productions, both as a crew and as solo artists. It’s something ridiculous like 55 tracks deep, and while it’s a bitch that each is linked separately on zhare, it’s well worth the hassle of collecting them (especially if like me most of your vinyl copies are in storage about 1000 miles away) just to remind yourself of how crazy and influential RZA’s productions have been, and in the case of some of his more recent work still are.

I love the Wu, so I am probably totally biased, but reading the comments and listening again this time trying to focus more on the beat, I am reminded of just how much of a genius producer he is, and that’s not an overblown comment either. From the first wave of Wu albums to more recent offerings like his collabo with MF Doom and some of his Bobby Digital stuff (emphasis on the some in my case), RZA is quite simply one of the best hip hop producers period, regardless of the fact that the Wu might not be as “great” as they used to be. Early Wu Tang tracks still sound as awesome as they did when I was a teenager while his post “Wu Tang was the best thing in hip hop”-period work shows his evolution as a producer and still contains enough wtf moments. Just listen to how much stuff goes on in some of the early tracks, how he flipped those samples and just how raw and energetic some of these beats are, with or without the lyrics.

Post-lyrical raps
Another blog I came across this week is No Trivia, and it’s also good. I came across it on this post, which is part 1 of a 4 part essay of sorts I guess you could call it. It talks about how rap, and more specifically rappers, has entered a post-lyrical phase from what the author refers to as the days of the ‘Nas Formula’. It’s late, and I should be sleeping, so I won’t attempt to paraphrase much more than my already poor attempt but I will just say that it makes for a very interesting read (parts 2 to 4 follow this post in reverse chronological order or something like that). It’s made me realise a few things about how I’ve felt about recent rappers like Kanye, Lil’ Wayne and The Clipse and why I was at first reticent to their music but have grown to actually enjoy some of it, lyrically that is. Another thing I find interesting is Brandon’s final comments in part 4 about how these post-lyrical rappers are creating something new by collaborating and working with other genres, something I feel is echoed in the work of producers like Flying Lotus and the whole new generation I’ve discussed at length recently. I want to speak on this more later but I guess if Kanye, Wayne and others are post-lyrical than maybe Fly Lo and co are post-boom bap or something like that. What’s for sure is that rappers and producers are indeed creating something new, and it’s actually quite exciting.

Hipsters yo
Lastly, I meant to post this ages ago but never got round to it. A post on the Unkut blog summing up the whole thing about hipster rap, which I kind of missed while travelling but picked up on by listening to a bunch of mixes over the last 6 months. I know the word thing is really vague, but then the whole hipster saga is actually pretty vague too in a sense, though it’s interesting especially if you read the articles referred to in the post I just link. The one by Chairman Mao is totally spot on, and the whole hipster rap thing also kind of feeds into the post-lyrical ting mentioned above and the new era of boom bap I’ve been talking about. Again I need sleep so I’ll delve on that more later, but read them they’re good, really good.

And then go and watch this also on the subject and which just totally smacks it on the head. JSmooth is my new favourite video blogger, even though I didn’t even know that shit existed as such before I found him. I’m glad though cos now I don’t want to go and find out anyone else, he totally owns, I’d recommend pretty much every one of the video entries on his site, he just has a way with words.

The internet is your friend, my bed is mine right now.