Lovely new Slum Village joint, ‘Forever’.
Lovely new Slum Village joint, ‘Forever’.
It’s taken me a few days to land back on Earth after another spectacular Southport Weekender session, and I return armed with some serious joy to share.
Take Jose James, for example. I first time heard him sing was at a basement club in NYC six years ago and his sultry style has since matured beautifully.
The live show I was most looking forward to, however, was Mala In Cuba – the Deep Medi don bringing his album to life with timbales and percussion, and Swindle on keys. Mala can do no wrong. What’s more, Gilles Peterson followed up with my guiltiest pleasure of all.
Whitney has a voice, but Adeva took no prisoners at her Powerhouse PA on Saturday. Her partner, a dead ringer for Rick Ross, watched proudly from the crowd.
Back at the Beat Bar, where I spent most of my time, Detroit’s Andres and Chi-town’s Ron Trent did what they do best; the former drawing for Dilla and Trent going in on Kerri Chandler’s remix of ‘You’re In My System’. I’m bouncing around at the front somewhere.
From one classic to the next, it would be remiss not to mention Jonny Miller bringing the house down with his re-edit of Cherelle and Alexander O’Neal’s ‘Saturday Love’. The Suncébeat Dome erupted into a synchronised two-step – the proof has yet to be uploaded to the world wide web but it’s on its way.
So for a finale – how about Joe Claussell, Danny Krivit and Francois K reuniting for a Body & Soul session that closed with Nu Yorican Soul’s ‘It’s Alright, I Feel It!’? It happened, and it was emotional.
Lord Quas is back!
They used to be called A Yellow Man but changed names and are now Haawkhouse… Their first video is up.
“We gotta give the seeds what they need to succeed.” J Rawls speaks the truth.
Nothing like a skate video to brighten up a Friday afternoon. Japan’s Gou Miyagi goes nuts in Osaka on this one.
It’s been a long time coming but I finally sat down and got my head back into Ableton to put together another mix. It was fun – so much music jostling for position, like the punters at the last Wu-Tang gig I went to but with sharper elbows and better trainers. 2Pac was particularly boisterous and he swears quite a bit but I feel Max Richter is a suitable palliative to the expletives. I hope you like it.
“His momma said, Donovan why are you on the corner of Linden and Guy R. Brewer?” Jay Shells drops “Rap Quotes’, a magnificent site-specific street art project. Via Rhythmic Clicking.
“Sometimes words are just things for you to take back.” Jonwayne speaks the truth on ‘Passing Fancies’.
Not quite the record to be playing loud on a Monday night, but it’s hard to resist. Tessela’s ‘Hackney Parrot’ is a weighty little number.
