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Rammellzee vs. K-Rob Beat Bop (12" Single) Tartown: 1983) Put simply, the Beat Bop 12" is one of the stone tablets of hip hop. Originally released in an ultra-limited run on Tartown Records, which — paired with its skewed street-level funk and visionary, impressionistic raps — virtually guaranteed that it would quickly attain the status of hip hop holy … Continue reading Rammellzee vs. K-Rob – Beat Bop
Tournesol Tournesol (R&S: 1993) Tournesol were just one among dozens of artists pushed out into the wider world by the towering edifice that was R&S Records in the early nineties, an era when the various strands of eighties-derived dance music wove together in a vibrant tapestry of sound under the aegis of a post-ecstasy dance … Continue reading Tournesol – Tournesol
Kraftwerk: At the way station to the future With Florian Schneider’s passing this spring, one of the great institutions of modern music was laid to rest. Kraftwerk’s reputation truly precedes them, to the point that introductions are hardly even necessary at this point. Suffice it to say that the group took all of early krautrock's … Continue reading Kraftwerk
Tony Allen with Afrobeat 2000 N.E.P.A (Never Expect Power Always) Mercury: 1984 In the course of writing last week's tribute to Tony Allen, I was purposefully brief when discussing this record because I knew I'd have to return to it for a full-length feature in its own right. After all, it comes in at a … Continue reading Tony Allen – N.E.P.A.
Cresting into the dawning days of springtime, the last frost retreats into the shadows and the culling of the winter weeds. A towering stack of records nestled under the marquee, waiting in the cool of the morning shade, ready to accompany the landscape/ing as the lingering cold slowly recedes beneath the warm rays of the … Continue reading Garden Grooves 007
The year of the album I'd already been working on this little list for awhile now, the concept swirling around in the back of my mind for years (much like the Metal Beat 15 had been). In fact, I was originally planning to post this last weekend, but various real world concerns only pushed it … Continue reading 1988
Various Artists 20 Parallel SystemsCheap Hotel 2020 In a sense, this compilation picks up where we left off last time with CHR-009: Terminal Vibration Vol. One, drawing a line from Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five's New York New York through all manner of metal beat hip hop right up to the present day. The … Continue reading CHR-010: 20 Parallel Systems
Said rock the house y'all! After some delay (holiday season-related), it's time to pick up where we left off with the final stretch of Terminal Vibration. Tying up loose ends. The second of these post-post entries is a mop up of all the hip hop that fell between the cracks in the Edge Of No … Continue reading Terminal Vibration: Metal Beat 15
In a similar spirit to last year, the list crew decided to put together a chart around a specific year. Last year was my call, so I chose 1997 for its pivotal significance in my own musical life (after all, it's the year I tripped and fell into the wonderful world of beats in the … Continue reading 25 From 91
Let the transmission commence! A few weeks ago I promised to touch on a couple key links in the proto-punk funk story, both of whom seemed to possess wholly self-contained visions of new wave disco years before the fact. As was the case with Suicide's debut, the cockney disco of Ian Dury And The Blockheads … Continue reading Terminal Vibration: Back To Get Ya!