Factory Records: Communications 1978-92

I love Joy Division. I think that the bass lines and synths set them apart. A rich part of the Joy Division story is their label, Factory Records. Factory signed groups such as ESG, Joy Division, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, and A Certain Ratio to just name a well-known few. It is no small feat that one record label was nearly responsible for a whole pop music style. With the later musical talents of New Order and The Happy Mondays, Factory seemed to head into the land of huge labels and huge record stars.

As an homage to the great taste of the Factory artists, Rhino records has released one of their fantastic (albeit huge) box sets. This one includes some interesting tracks, such as the Cabaret Voltaire doing “Baader Meinhof,” Section 25’s “Girls Don’t Count,” and 52 Street’s “Cool as Ice.” But there are the occasional duds, included as reminders of the time… I think. Like Quando Quango’s “Love Temple.”

Find it on Amazon:  click here.

People Under the Stairs rockin some new beats, soon to be followed by another album - "Carried Away!"

I’ve been a huge People Under the Stairs fan fo’eva! Their new album “Fun DMC” rocks. It’s not just an homage to the old school styles of the East Coast (see “GrandMaster Flash, DJ Kool Herc, et al.) It holds a spectrum of brand new ideas that PUTS have been growing since their “O.S.T” release. The rhymes are upbeat to say the least, with a laid back take on their fame and fortune. They have seemed to relax more since the Om records days, when they seemed devoted more to the battle rap.

But where this album shines, in my opinion, is the huge amount of samples that Thes One and Double K have used as a basis for their swinging rhymes. These guys have never stopped diggin.’ And still they use samples that make music freaks go “HMMM!!” In the quest for NOS beats, these guys really take the cake.

Maybe one of the most beautiful women to ever sing!!

I went to the movie theater to see “Soul Power” and it truly rocked! The movie shows a place and time of change for the black community. The music dramatically reflects that change like no other music can: with funk and class!

I am not going to list all the players because you need to see it. But here is a spoiler alert: I wanna talk about one of the performers, Ms. Celia Cruz.

This woman is a phenom of charisma and skill. She takes “Soul Power” and gently lifts the film up beyond what it would be with all the other performers. A scene in the film shows her beating her shoe on the airplane luggage carrier as she keeps time and sings with her group during the plane ride to Africa. And she is so happy. Does she sleep?

It looks like no one in this movie ever sleeps. And Ms. Cruz keeps her dynamite charisma going and going. Sometimes she looks so awed to be performing and that seems to wear off on her audience.

African Scream Contest - Screams galore, and some very funky jams.

Most compilations seem to have one or two gems and a bunch of crap. But there are a few out there – in these days of crate diggin fiends – that really rock the roost. “African Scream Contest” is one of those that make you say “Why have I not heard this?”

This album was released by the Analog Africa label.  This label looks like it has more than its fair share of real sweet recordings from the the afro-delic and afrofunk varieties.

One of Liza's gems

During our last party – a wedding party – I was being the anti-social bug. That means I was hiding down in the Lab with the vinyl spinning some music for the guests. I get kinda scared of all the people sometimes and the music helps soothe my natural reaction – drink, drink, drink.

So I was down there with the vinyl, and picked out a few gems from the shelves for the folks to listen to. Some of the vinyl was already out, making it easy to chose. Al Green’s self-titled LP (Bell 6076) was one of the beauties.

For this party, we needed two things: Dance (provided by the illustrious DJ Buttafly) and some soul. Al Green’s album fits in perfectly here. It is a great compilation from the late 60’s/early 70’s Green. As it says, it includes “Back Up Train,” along with others like “Let Me Help You.”

Most of the songs on the album include simple melodies backed by funky drums, and fine organ and guitar instrumentals. After burning this to digital, I realized yet again the value inherent in the grooves: the sound is just so inviting that it makes the music even more genuine, in some cases, than seeing the artist live. Or maybe it is being able to participate in the music by dropping the needle and watching the record spin…

BAD to those that are in the know!

Imagine: it is 1984. Think George Orwell, think the beginning of over-ground Hippity Hop, and the end of the first Reagan administration.

Well, even juicier yet is the end of one of the best relationships in music: Mick Jones gets fired from the Clash by the one and only Joe Strummer. Holy Crap!! But what most people don’t know is that Mick takes a lot of the talent of the Clash and creates something better – Big Audio Dynamite.

Big Audio is primarily a Mick Jones gig, with the cooperation of Don Letts (of the Westway to the World fame.) But even Joe Strummer contributes some really great content to the BAD.

FAVORITES:

NO. 10, Upping Street

This is Big Audio Dynamite

The Sovereign 2 Turntable from Origin Live - not for the faint of wallet

It may look ridiculous, but I am sure that if I had one, I would not be laughing. With a pricetag of nearly £4000 ( which is like $5000, I think,) the Origin Live Sovereign 2 turntable looks a lot more like a Caddy than a Ferrari, but reviewers of other Origin products say the delivery is worth the money.

I don’t know if this would be any good for sampling, however. I like my samples kinda gritty – ugly! So I wouldn’t use this brand for my work. But I sure wouldn’t mind listening to the final product on one of these badboys. Too bad I have never had any work burned into vinyl!

As far as the design goes, seems pretty lunky. The foot space of this thing must be around two square feet. That is a lot more space than I have in my little listening area. I guess you would probably not be listening to this thing in a cave, if you are this worried about sound (or your own vanity!) And it is visually more like a grand piano than a Technics sl-1200 (so my friends would all be whacked out by this thing.)

Final Opinion: not quite. Even though I have not heard any ELO records on it, or Brahms or any of that less-than-funky music, and I am sure that it sounds great. I would get laughed Outta town!

Cymande - Early 70's funk

Cymande’s notable contributions to the world of music have been sampled by De La Soul, Masta Ace, and The Fugees among others. Cymande’s music fills a niche of funk with the likes of War and Mandrill. But Cymande is probably the lesser known of this type of funk. It combines world-wide elements of reggae and jazz, which becomes a very chill kind of funk music. Really great for just sitting back and listening on the hifi or some good headphones.

For more on Cymande:

Wikipedia – Cymande

Flea Market Funk – The Message

Kid Cudi

I really hate it when I can’t get something I want. I know, that is some selfish shit. But when it comes to music, I don’t take it easy!

A good example of this is the Kid Cudi mixtape. You can’t download it from the filesharing sites anymore. I know that it means that two things happened: either copyright infringement from someone biting or there was nobody downloading. But I really doubt that last scenario.

I really like the Kid Cudi stuff. It is pretty new to me. But more than that, The production is just plain nuts!! You can still listen to the Mixtape here. By the way, if you have been reading these posts, you will know that I highly recommend Audio Hijack Pro to jack this if you can’t download it ;)

So you might remember how the early Neptunes music made you happy and at the same time seemed to impart some intelligent use of samples and synths. Well the Cudi tape does that, but with a feeling like there will not be a chance of sellin’ out. Poor Neptunes, you might say (although I don’t know why you would say that if you thought about how much they sold out for!) But this is really what the Neptunes woulda put out if they didn’t buy that Hollywood crap. And he has a great sense of humor, plus lots of melodies.

My little sampler does a lot, but it won't choose the music for me.

Man, I love my MPC-500. It feels really good to have all that musical ability and quality right there at my fingers. It is like a really fine paintbrush or something artsy like that. But the darn thing does not do one thing for me: choose the music for me.

I consider the whole sonic universe to be spectrum for sampling. My aesthetics keep me from “biting” however. This means stealing someone elses chops. Now if there is a beat that I like and can’t figure out how to follow it, I may take a whole rhythm section, but I will layer the hell out of it.

Check out these quotes from some giants of sampling. DJ Shadow, Amon Tobin and Chuck D among others go on the record talkin’ ’bout samplin’.

On a seperate note, Outta has been excepted into a gallery display of blogs, because they think we are so really cool. Thanks We Love WP! (Yes, this is a shameless campaign to get my blog readership up.)