easy listening

Here we are with part 2 of the Downtempo Selection. First up is a song by guitarist Duminie DePorres on Sound Signature and features powerful social commentary by Last Poet, Umar Bin Hassan over Duminie’s guitar soloing in the distance. Next up is Mamaluke’s “The Pant“, from the highly respected Mezzanine De L’Alcazar series, (also released as a single by Tru Thoughts), there’s some lovely guitar work here highly contrasting Duminie’s wailing solo guitar with a cheerful vibe that’d pick you up if the words of Umar made you feel uneasy.

[youtube n5kRnxF6bxQ]
Hip teens don’t wear blue jeans

Heading onto a different vibe, Frank Popp’s six piece outfit makes sugar pop flavoured with 60’s dances, soulful vocal chorus’ and organ work by the man himself. This one is off a 2005 split single on Milano downtempo label Record Kicks. Another sample laced jazzy beat track is by the Swede Red Astaire once again on Tru Thoughts. Do I smell a new fanboy here?

Next up The Juju Orchestra asks “What is Hip?” with a retro hipshake from their latest album with Carolyn Leonhart and Terry Callier who’s going to play a concert in Istanbul next wednesday.

“Is it something that you earn?
or do you have to wait your turn?”

Next is Austria’s Parov Stelar reshaping Germany’s Nekta on Infracom with jazzy broken beats over retro brasswork, similar to the sounds of Frank Popp but with less organs! Finally we finish up with one of the foremost hardbop drummers & composer Max Roach’s timeless Plus 4 album with Kenny Dorham on the trumpet and Sonny Rollins on tenor sax from 1956.

Duminie - Dark Matters
Mamaluke - The Pant
Nekta - Guess Who (Parov Stelar Remix)
Frank Popp Ensemble - Leave Me Alone
Red Astaire - Move yo Ass
The Juju Orchestra - What is Hip
Max Roach - Woody ‘N You

I hate modern life! Time flies by so fast and you can never tend to enough things. See, it’s been 5 days since I’ve written a post for undomondo and I haven’t done anything notable in the meantime, just tended to some things I’ve probably left untended for a few weeks. It’s always a race to micromanage things, trying to get the ones left behind uptodate, while another thing gets left behind.

Anyways enough rant, we’ve got a clear blue sky here and I have been listening to more easy listening stuff in accordance. Here’s a selection from some of the downtempo/nujazz stuff I’ve been listening to on and off for a few months, there will be a second part of this selection tomorrow hopefully.

Bristol’s Ben Westbeech has an album on Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood Recordings, modern urban soul/jazz/beat mixture from a talented songwriter, this one’s over retro horn samples and with a great catchy hook. Germany’s Deja Move has urban downtempo beats over flurrying rhodes chords and percussions on a suitable track named Warmin’ out on Audiopharm.

An artist collective I’ve first heard this year is Free the Robots on Elsewhere Studios, I’ve played a strange electronic beat tune from them on Undomondo #12 but this time it’s a sampled jazzy track their self titled EP has lots of diversity!. Next is the single off Frankie Valentine’s The World of What on Sunshine Enterprises, “Marinheiro So” featuring Monica Vasconcelos on the vocals, lovely tune. Tru Thoughts‘ Jumbonics is the most different of the whole bunch, with a driving electronic bass and soulful vocals and more of a pop mentality than standard downtempo bizness. Last but not least is the eightpiece afrofunk outfit “The Haggis Horns” and their blast of a track called The Traveller off First Word Records.

Ben Westbeech - Stop What you’re doing
Deja Move - Warmin’
Free the Robots - Jazzhole
Frankie Valentine - Marinheiro So
Jumbonics - Auto-Magic
The Haggis Horns - The Traveller