These two bands are linked by a common drummer. The first is a funk group, the second is halfway-to-dubstep/electronica band.
Funk is a wild genre. It’s not so much the music itself, although that has a lot to do with it. It’s just that sometimes its musicians are very eccentric. Enter: Screaming Headless Torsos. This group, in its prime, had five of the best. SHT’s frontman was a funk, soul, and blues freak named Dean Bowman… seriously, his voice is so perfect for the genre. On bass, they had London-born but now New York-based jazz virtuoso Fima Ephron. Bronx native Daniel Sadownick played percussion other than the drum kit. To add to the already impenetrable mix, Switzerland’s Jojo Mayer was on drums. I consider him to be the best drummer in the world. Many will disagree with me, but I stand by it. And finally, we’ve arrived at the character: Dave Fuze Fiuczynski. This is a guitarist who doesn’t want to play just jazz. He’s radical in his style, inventive, and uninhibited. Just listen to some of the stuff he comes up with…
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Screaming Headless Torsos- Vinnie
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Screaming Headless Torsos- Blue In Green (Miles Davis Cover)
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Screaming Headless Torsos- Word To Herb
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Screaming Headless Torsos- Dig A Pony (The Beatles Cover)
So SHT is a bunch of really fucking talented people. Eventually, Jojo Mayer went on to bigger things. He won Modern Drummer’s Best Drummer award a few times, if I’m not mistaken, and crafted a group called Prohibited Beatz. They were a fusion of hip hop, jazz, rock, funk, and blues that really sparkled on the live stage. They had a weekly spot in a New York nightclub, and that gig eventually morphed the group into what it is today, NERVE. The trio really centers around Jojo Mayer and his drum kit – he’s a human drum machine. Jojo is one of the few musicians to have ever mastered the Moeller Whip and it makes his technique and style idolized. NERVE, can’t just ride on one person’s shoulders though. As a group, they are one of the most forward thinking, wow-inducing, stylistically-intriguing talents, akin to the kind of stuff Flying Lotus does in terms of really pushing boundaries. Check out some of their stuff:
The weekend LFTF threw its first show in New York City at The Studio at Webster Hall, I found myself with a few friends at a falafel restaurant many blocks away from the venue. Hours of standing and dancing to RL Grime, Salva, and Shlohmo made us very very hungry. We sat down at a table and were eating when an adorable Australian took a seat at the table behind us. She looked like our kind of chick, so we naturally struck up a conversation. Her name is Hazel Brown… now we all know you can’t trust someone with two names that are colors, right? But something about her was infinitely charming. She had just come from the show. So I explained my involvement, and she jumped in with the most modest descriptions of what she does. “I run a label in Australia and sing,” she said to us.
We swapped contact info, and after a few email exchanges, I realized she wasn’t just running any dinky label in Australia or singing in the shower. No, she was much more important than that. Hazel co-runs the Australian label Two Bright Lakes and is the lead singer for Otouto. Needless to say, I felt cheated.
The next thing I knew, I was searching the bowels of my music library for any signs of the label’s talent. Two artists popped up. The first was Oscar + Martin, who she actually manages. The second was an album called Pip by her band, Otouto. No way! And I had played this thing out; play counts don’t lie.
For the next few weeks, I relived the 2010 release. Pip is an exciting record; it sounds like it would be the soundtrack to an adventurous outing. Hazel’s vocals, are to say the least, angelic. They have a soft and delicate quality about them, devoid of vibrato, that sometimes clash with the brash and brazen qualities of the trio’s composition. “Astronauts” starts off the record. It’s high energy with the drums pounding along and rapid down-strum guitar mirroring its intenseness. The next tune, “Cartoon Shoes”, is a whimsical number; one that you can spin around to in a dreamlike haze and fall flat on a bed of pillows. It leaves you feeling hopeful and warm and fuzzy inside. A few tunes later comes “W. Hillier”. This is one of the more unique tunes on the album. It features a cool synth patch and super groovy syncopated and choppy drums. Next up is “Tennis Players”, which is a tune that was written after some sort of terrible goodbye. It pierces your heart with lyrics like: “I bet you think I’m dreaming of you in the dark, in the sheets, I am not,” and “the only reason I want to see you is to give you back… all of the shit you weighed me down with.” Ouch, that’s cold. These sentiments are only exasperated by the relatively mysterious aura of the music, focusing on a lonely drum and simple, yet haunting, guitar. Second to last on the non-bonus album comes “Sushi”. This is the album’s single that focuses on the group’s quirkiness: “I mistook a man eating sushi… for a man putting on a fake mustache.” WTF? Who does that?
Check out the aforementioned tunes below and grab Otouto’s Pip right here.
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Otouto- Astronauts
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Otouto- Cartoon Shoes
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Otouto- W. Hillier
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Otouto- Tennis Players
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Back in 1998, San Diego birthed the indie rock group Pinback. Originally a duo, later years saw the additions of rotating drummers. Before the variety could start, however, the core released This Is A Pinback CD in 1999 with the help of a drum machine.
This is a cool album marked by paradoxes. Their music portrays a sense of security and confidence, but it’s contrasted with dark themes, such as death and loneliness. It sounds familiar, almost homely, but is also unnervingly unique. The guitars are warm and cradling, but at times can be washed out by the relatively poor recording quality. The gentile, vibrato-less, and soothing vocals boast lively harmonies, but sometimes can be overshadowed by the duo’s attention-grabbing lyrics (such as in the tune “Shag” in which the chorus repeats “Push the little baby down the spiral stairs”).
This Is A Pinback CD is definitely a listening album, and as such deserves at least two plays. To really appreciate this album, we think it may take a few more. Check ‘em out.
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Pinback- Tripoli
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Pinback- Hurley
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Pinback- Loro
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Rapper Diverse, born Kenny Jenkins, is somewhat of an underground name in the hip hop world. That might not be saying much since all we do is live on the underground’s word, but he’s underground in the sense that you’ve definitely heard his influence, but probably know none of his original work. In the past, he teamed up with RJD2, Mos Def, J Dilla, Madlib, and Gift of Gab (of Blackalicious)… all names with which you’re undoubtedly familiar. It led to his amazing 2003 record One A.M.
The most striking part of Diverse’s music is his unique flow. He has said, “[a] lot of MCs let the rhythm dedicate how they rhyme. I’m a poet even before I’m an MC, which allows me to dedicate to the beat.” At first blush, he seems to be trying to cram as many words as possible into a single riff; it evokes the same reaction as watching a television show that you know has only five minutes left and can’t possibly resolve the plot properly in that amount of time. But just like the show, Diverse surprises by finishing with unbridled ease. He has a natural talent to spit as smoothly as butter, as proficiently as a literature major, and as insightfully as a philosopher. We’d even go so far as to say that he can better any beat with his weaving rhymes. Case in point, listen to all four of the sample tracks below; you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how diverse (no pun intended) his tunes are. In particular, check out how different the first three tunes are from the fourth.
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Diverse- Just Biz
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Diverse- Blindman
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Diverse feat. Lyrics Born- Explosive
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Lemon Jelly‘s Lost Horizons is a fantastic example of an album that is both chill and whimsical. The British electro duo consisting of Fred Deakin and Nick Franglen crafted it back in 2002. They’re no longer around as Lemon Jelly and have each pursued solo careers, but their unique spirit remains along with their few releases. Lost Horizons is focused – clearly determined to reach an ultimate goal from the moment you push play. The end is nothing you could have expected, but rather the duo plays with their listeners. They dare you to suppress an increasingly inevitable smile with laid-back beats that are colored by goofiness and uncompromising and quirky instrumentation. What’s even better is the album’s ability to compel you to never turn it off. From the incredible blissful nature of “Space Walk”, to the pensive nature of “Ramblin’ Man”, to the hilarity of “Nice Weather for Ducks”, Lost Horizons is sure to be a new favorite.
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Here’s a treat for all of our readers out there. This is a very rare studio mix by Skream from January 2004. It’s all his own tracks, but only a 4 track EP of them was ever released. This mix used to be hosted on a site called Big Apple Records, which was the first ever exclusively dubstep online record store (back before digital downloads were the norm), and really the only place you could get most of the early tracks on vinyl. Big Apple also pressed some of the really early dubstep tracks including the first releases by Benga, Skream & Loefah and was the only place you could really buy many of the dubstep records at the time from the dozen or so producers that were pressing it. The store closed down around 2005, because there weren’t enough people buying dubstep records to make it worth it. This is also the reason why much of the earliest dubstep was never released, but just handed around between producers & DJs who knew each other. There wasn’t a dubstep forum or anything, so you couldn’t even DJ dubstep successfully without knowing the guys in the UK. As a result, there were very few DJs in the US playing dubstep in their sets.
This mix doesn’t (and never did) actually have a name or a tracklist (which makes it even harder to find these days). The tracks that appeared on the Acid People EP on Big Apple Records were the only tracks that saw a release from this mix, and it’s too bad because there are some great tunes on here. This mix perfectly showcases the period when people were just beginning to make tracks that were half speed throughout the whole track (yes, there was dubstep before there was 70bpm dubstep), and Skream was the first producer to really start experimenting heavily with that. This mix showcases a far different direction than the direction that Skream eventually took with his music, and we feel that it’s a lot better in many ways. Download/stream the mix below.
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UK producer Bullion dove into unchartered territories on this record. He undertook a remixing project that, when done properly, produces an unrivaled uniqueness. Pet Sounds: In The Key Of Dee is a fusion of J. Dilla style and Brian Wilson‘s brainchild, The Beach Boys. This marriage doesn’t suck like so many other The Beach Boys remixes; it’s actually quite incredible. He followed J. Dilla’s lead, experimenting with chopping techniques and reorganizing the already angelic harmonies of the Boys to use them as instruments to color the beat. What makes In The Key Of Dee different is that Bullion didn’t destroy the cohesiveness of The Beach Boys’ tracks. Within the beats, Bullion managed to maintain the attractive nostalgia associated with The Beach Boys’ timeless classics. Sample “God Only Knows” and “You Still Believe In Dee” and download the entire record below.
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