* XLR8R presents a mix from Portland’s Marriage Records, home to favourites The Watery Graves of Portland and Valet, …worms, Lucky Dragons, Karl Blau among others.

* Cosmic Dancing with Daniel Donnachie.

* Madlib’s WLIB AM on the air live with J.Rocc on the Stones Throw podcast.

* Vol 5 of the We Make it Good series by The Gaslamp Killer, a true gemfinder with lots of psychedelia, beats, noise, soul and hiphop under his belt. Fader Magazine.

* Jacques Renault Guest Mix on Cosmic Disco.

The first bits are dominated by jazzy hiphop and neosoul from Dilla, Flying Lotus and Coultrain (which can be found on BBE’s Amplified Compilation). I’ve used 2 interludes from the late and magnifique Polish composer Krzysztof Komeda, one is the theme to Cul-de-Sac by Polanski, can’t stress how good it is. The last bits of the show are more dreamy with some dub and cosmic stuff ends with Asha’s 8 minute cosmic masterpiece!

Erik Levander - Vid Fönstret
Me’Shell NdegéOcello - Haditha
Flying Lotus - Shadows
J Dilla - So far to go ft. Common and D’Angelo
Coultrain - Girl of my dreams
Alan Hawkshaw - High Diver
Krzysztof Komeda - Walk on Water
Slakah the Beatchild - B-Boy Beef
Ammoncontact - Beautiful Flowers
Nomo - Rings
Krzysztof Komeda - Cul-de-sac
Arp - St. Tropez
Porn Sword Tobacco - My Lovely Wife Becky
Byron Lee & Dragonaires - Cash Box
Errol Holt - Happiness
Fenin - Elephants
Asha - Shuttlecock

* Viva Flexipop shares all of the iconic flexipop disks. Cheap electro, NDW, synthpop, post punk, you name it, via the lovely A Million Keys, a recently find.

* I’ve talked about Amral’s Trinidad Cavaliers before on the calypso post, here’s a cover of Tito Puente/Santana’s Oye Como Va from this steel drum orchestra on I’m Learning to Share!

* Cosmic Disco Charts for July, also a guide to the nuances between Italo/Cosmic/Nu-Balearic styles of disco by The Guardian

* Wobbly, Porest and Peter Conheim & Don Joyce from Negativland get together as Chopping Channel to make a collage/plunderphonics mix for Negativland’s majestic “Over the Edge” radio program. Free download the tracks here. You can get more OTE here

* Stream pieces from James Blackshaw’s Litany of Echoes while reading his own words about them. More James Blackshaw on undomondo.

* A new blog on our blogroll, oro has a wide range of hard to find traditional African music from voodoo brass to afro rock and everything in between. Check out some of voodoo stuff from Amikpon.

* Aretha Franklin singing the classical opera piece Nessun Dorma via Friday Afternoon in the Universe.

* MP3 Blogs vs. Music Blogs: Different Purposes?

* The flirting between dubstep and minimal techno explained.

* 5 Lies Indie Musicians Tell Themselves

Continuing our soulful hiphop tour, renowned beatdigger Steve Ellison aka Flying Lotus is soon to have his sophomore album “Los Angeles” out on UK’s Warp. His debut “1983″ on Carlos Nino’s (Ammoncontact / Build an Ark) Plug Research was very well received and so was his “Reset EP” on Warp, which is pure gold!. His music has the mellow chords & laidback soul that you’d expect from LA Scene characterized by Plug Research, but he doesn’t refrain himself from using more electronic sounds which might appeal more to fans of Warp. Dark cosmic soundscapes accompany clappy beats giving his music an eerie and dystopic cinematic quality.

He’s a grand nephew of the late Alice Coltrane and it seems family tradition has once again produced a notable musician in touch with cosmos. He’s been doing bootleg remixes to Kelis and Oizo as well and he is carrying the torch ignited by J Dilla, Madlib and co. to different heights.

Flying Lotus - Beginners Falafel
Flying Lotus - Tea Leaf Dancers (feat. Andreya Triana)
Flying Lotus - Bonus Beat

For some reason when I first got a hold of “Dawn” I mistook “Build an Ark” for “Like A Tim” because of the name. That’s why my first listen to the album was a story of shock, as this is a very soulful and organic album as opposed to “Like A Tim”s electronic techno music. A few minutes later I figured out that they were two different acts (I’m so bright) and found out Build an Ark is a huge project led by Ammoncontact’s Carlos Nino which includes musicians like the 73 year old legend Big Black himself on percussions, Dwight Trible on vocals, Nate Morgan on piano, Phil Ranelin on trombone adding up to a staggering total cast of around 30 musicians.

“Dawn” includes 10 tracks, two covers from Pharoah Sanders, and one of Big Black’s own “Love, Sweet Like Sugar Cane” (which might be the best one on the album) and the rest are original compositions. The music is a take on the 70’s spiritual cosmic jazz & black soul and gospel choruses, with a little bit of eastern & flower child mentality altogether molded into an ethereal album, a manifesto of peace and global human consciousness.

There’s no possibility to add more to this album by adding more to this review, simply put not listening to “Dawn” at least once should be a criminal offense. Out on Kindred Spirits this record has been ‘dedicated’ to John and Alice Coltrane, and it’s such a sweet and heartfelt dedication I’m really happy to have been a part of this love even if only as a listener.

BTW, The third song I shared down here is from their debut album “Peace With Every Step” which I’m thinking of buying right after finishing this review.

[youtube PexJ8exsQnA]

Build an Ark - Love Like Sugar Cane
Build an Ark - Dawn
Build an Ark - Precious, Priceless