This guy's one of the better as-of-yet unknown producers. In the clip above Oddisee explains growing up in the DC area while detailing the impetus for this style in general and specifically on upcoming work.

Beans

Tomorrow Right Now

(Warp, 2003)

Anti-Pop Consortium no longer exists and to most that doesn’t mean too much. But in the realm of underground hip-hop it means that there are probably going be a lot of interesting solo projects. Anti-Pop reportedly split up earlier this year and since members have been touring as well as recording. However, the first of these solo albums to appear is that of Beans. Warp, which mostly deals in electronic music, has seen fit to put out Tomorrow Right Now.

After unwrapping the record and being sucked into the austere looking picture of Beans in a pair of sun glasses on the front and a picture of the red stripe posted on the back of his head as well as the back of the album, plop it down in the player and prepare yourself. El-P has been touted as the most innovative beat maker in hip-hop of late, but simply by listening to Tomorrow Right Now it seems that Beans could now be in contention for that title. There are three instrumental tracks (“Sickle Cell Hysteria”, “Rose Periwinkle Plum”, “Xon”) on this offering, all of them differ in length and scope, but all of them are exceedingly electronic. Beans, for the most part, eschews the boom-bap of rap in lieu of pushing into new territory: the further merging of hip-hop and electronic music. There are drum programs, there are steady bass lines, but there are also electronic burps and gurgles, sounds and noises. The record’s rife with too many quality tracks to comment upon individually, but “Crave” easily sums up the album in one line. Beans simply figures that there are “Too many MCs and not enough listeners”. True.

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The richness of Firefly's story is that just about any one of the characters who make their home on Serenity could carry their own fully realized series. The only real exception would be Kaylee, who is more or less having her first adventure away from home with Mal and his crew. Everyone else is a show unto themselves. If one were to take the story of Simon and River Tam as its own, stand-alone feature, it would still be a compelling tale of a brother and sister braving the unknown and surviving by little more than their love for each other. This is why the little glimpses of that story we get in the handful of Firefly episodes are as interesting as they are. Simon and River, like everyone else on Serenity, are already fleshed-out characters who have a complex story to tell.

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You can’t pin point the end of Connecticut’s Crystallized Movements since the band ostensibly turned into front man Wayne Rogers’ next projects. The same players wouldn’t travel from band to band – or even from record to record. But what Roger’s is credited with during the early eighties is maintaining the tie between punky rock stuffs and psych freak-outs in the face of the Paisely Underground, the emerging shoe-gaze thing and reams of indie bands inflecting its music with faux-tripped out sounds.

First forming in 1979, Crystallized Movements was a basement project with Roger’s being accompanied by drummer Ed Boyden. Its initial recordings were all duo affairs with Rogers going back and adding additional guitar tracks to the whole thing.

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England had a lot to feel silly about during the first half of the twentieth century.

Its empire was in the process of being dismantled, the threat of two wars fought on the continent proper had threatened autonomy and the culture was basically required to demur to art forms (literature, painting, etc.) coming from France, Italy and the rest of Europe. Even today, most folks would be hard pressed to name a specific art movement tied to that island nation. Punk might have been its largest, international contribution, but even that music really came from the States.

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Chuck Brooks wasn't a huge name, but his back-up singers come off like the Temptations or some other high profile ensemble. Either way, this track doesn't count as Brooks begging to stay in the company of his women, but it gets close.

Hip hop is as American as what? Baseball. Hip hop is universal as music is universal. Hip-hop dancing -- break dancing and hip hop culture are -- have gone around the world.

In Seoul, South Korea, hip hop teams from around the world squared off / battled it out for the championship. See the video.

Why is this significant? Does the world need more competition? Let's not focus on the competition, others might, but that is not my focus. It is the celebration of music and dance that moves me to make this post. The world gets smaller. Young people see what other young people do, and if it looks like fun, they do it too. Cultures come together, whether it's is baseball, or music and dance. If people are having fun, if people are happy, if what people do is cool, then it is cool. And a little breakdancing in Seoul, is good for the world's soul.

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Writers attempting to describe ambient musics usually get sucked into levying strings of adjectives and unloosing myriad visual comparisons about water or wind or whatever. Beautiful as those descriptions might be, none really has any bearing on the music it attempts to describe. Obviously, that’s the crux of the rock writing game, but who wants an exploration of my vocabulary when what’s actually needed is a summary of an album, of a career, of a man.

Eluvium, bka Matthew Cooper, is a Portland based composer  and producer who, since 2003 , has released work mostly through the venerable Temporary Residence label. Over the last seven years or so, Cooper’s found these albums to be included in top ten lists, best ofs and whatever other over the top, gratuitous love fests await the musically inclined when completing what amounts to a master work.

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If someone was able to figure out why Yellow Springs, Ohio has birthed so many cultural figures and moments they’d be enshrined as one of the nation’s most astute arts commentators.

There were probably earlier markers in the town’s history which separated it from the run of the mill Mid-American town, but Coretta Scott King was a student at Antioch College, which has since been closed. But she along with Dave Chappelle called the place home – not at the same time, obviously. In between those two figures was the soon to be infamous Seattle based band the Gits, who got its start on campus as well.

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With Tarantino’s version of freak being a surprisingly engaging effort, the rest of the unruly cast acting in From Dusk Till Dawn remains an interesting assemblage of talent.

Released in 1996 the movie features a rather young Clooney, one still a part of E.R.. So, his inclusion here should be lauded simply for shirking expectations and taking a role, which we should assumed he like, that didn’t jive with his then current fan base. The neck tattoo might be a bit much, but Rodriguez most likely worked to toughen up the guy’s image so as to not make the entire vampire fighting thing seem preposterous. Regardless of that, Clooney’s was a strong performance in a film of decent, if not great actors.

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