May 2009

StonedThe careers of both Peter Kruder and Richard Dorfmeister have enough caveats tossed in to keep even the most passive music fan enthralled by the wide ranging endeavors that these Austrians have gotten themselves into.

Beginning in the early '90s, the duo deejayed clubs and the like in their native country mixing together an ethereal composite of dub, hip hop, electronic elements and some stray bossa nova grooves. Soon enough, this mixture ensured that the burgeoning European and British electronic music movements embraced these wayward producers amidst not just their work as a duo, but in their individual endeavors.

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Thee FunkLiving briefly in Texas, Sly Stone (nee Sylvester Stewart) and his family moved to the Bay Area during the '50s. And while at the point in the countries evolution the Beats were waning, to say the least, and the seeds of hippiedom hadn't yet been sowed, the area seemed as good as any other to raise a family in an atmosphere of diversity.

During high school, at the age of 16, Stone recorded and released a local hit called "Long Time Gone." Of course, this would only be an initial glimpse into what he would eventually achieve. But it probably served as some sort of early incentive to continue making music.

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DroughtsIf Drake is familiar to you, most likely it's as a result of his small screen role as some wheel chaired character on Degrassi. And regardless of the fact that Kevin Smith apparently directed some of those episodes, any relationship with that enterprise shouldn't necessarily make a career. But I don't really know about show biz.

In addition to acting, Drake (nee Aubrey Drake Graham) was not only born in Canada, but apparently was raised in a pretty swank part of Toronto. So when adding all of this together, it wouldn't necessarily seem as if it would end in some sort of underground rap accolade. But it has.

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2Part of what's made the Wu Tang legacy such an enormous shadow that drapes itself over all of hip hop is that fact that the production - save for 8 Diagrams - is pretty timeless. Any of the crew's albums could have come from the same time and place as 36 Chambers. And while that might just mean that Wu sounds like dusty funk beats from a '90's dungeon, it'd still be hard to order those discs sequentially based upon the music.

But of course, the Wu isn't everyone's flavor. Even if it's not though, the crew's Method Man not only has one of the most recognizable flows in rap, it's probably one of the best. When coupled with Redman's similar style and timbre, the duo and its 1999 Blackout! should be recognized not necessarily as a water shed moment, but as an indispensible piece in not just the Wu canon, but in '90s rap.

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When Ammons wasn't playing in some stately trad jazz manner, he got funky...

BeingsEveryone likes collectible stuff. It doesn't seem that Anticon has more of a soft spot in its collective heart for the limited edition releases that some other indie labels do, but the lone release from Object Beings - a self titled affair - hit the ground with a lowly two hundred copies in existence. So that fact that anyone was able to hear this is pretty surprising. But thanks to the innernuts as well as the dudes over at the Beat Box Radio Show, now, we can listen.

Some groups - like cLOUDDEAD and others - have some sort of liberal idea as to what a group actually is. But Anticon, as much as any other outlet, works with this loosely conceived idea and releases disc after disc of left field stylee rap discs. Of course, some of the work that's related to the label - I'm thinking specifically of Subtle - really has nothing to do with the sweet boom bap, but instead traffics in some indie dregs.

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Breaks: Progress and JealousyAfro beat as a genre, isn't too drastically removed from the funk that was bubbling up in the States at about the same time that Tony Allen and Fela Kuti were figuring out some sax jams. There is of course that supplemental percussion on all of the Fela releases that adds an entirely new layer to the music. Funk wasn't missing that, it just wasn't incorporated in the same way.

Being the most famous constituent - and arguably the progenitor of the style - Fela counted a single drummer as a member of his band during the majority of his recorded life (we'll ignore the Ginger Baker recording, which was as much a marketing ploy as anything else). And for that reason Tony Allen needs to be afforded the same sort of reverence that Fela earned.

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StringtronicsIf you're an attentive music drone, you've probably come across the term 'library music' at least a few times in your travels across internet land. Maybe not - but now you have. I suppose it's no different than any other sort of genre name - it doesn't really define a sound at all, but serves as some demarcation point for where one thing begins and ends. One would probably be able to substitute baroque pop or orchestral rock for the term, but again, the name doesn't really matter.

Using the term 'library music,' though, does seem to have a few specific connotations. In addition to making the music just sound smarter than you, it in fact defines the genre as a precursor to Muzak. Of course that term has its own burdens to shoulder - and really it just makes me think of getting in an elevator at my grandmother's apartment building in anticipation of smelling that old Jewish lady smell that they all seem to somehow acquire.

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Breaking AtomsA sequentially compiled list of rap discs that matter from the '90s would include Breaking Atoms pretty close to the top. Coming out on the Wild Pitch label during '91, the album sounds newer than a great deal of other releases from that period. It's not as transcendent as work from A Tribe Called Quest, but very few things are. Even with that said, there aren't too many production flourishes that tie this disc to the previous decade. Unfortunately, the album probably won't be remembered for any of its persistent quality. Instead, Breaking Atoms serves as the first recorded appearance of Nasir Jones.

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This is partially why "In Living Color" was a decent show....and don't miss JLo. Thanks to illRoots.