Recent Music Releases

I had a chance to listen to Marco Polo's Port Authority last week. It's been hyped quite a bit both on the web (it's highly regarded by many bloggers) and on the streets (you can see posters on the utility poles). There are some nice beats on this. There is a real variety in terms of the feel of the samples. For example, "Nostalgia" is slow and jazzy, while "Go Around" is a more '70s soul sound. There isn't an overall feel to the album because he uses different types of music to get the samples for each track. The only thing that is really consistent across tracks are the baselines and the drum tracks. My favourite track on it is the bonus track, which is the same beat as ATCQ's electric relaxation. Overall, it's OK -- nothing spectacular or too special. I'm not sure I would listen to this again either in whole or in part. I saw yesterday morning that Mick Boogie has a mixtape version of the Port Authority. I'll probably check it out this week.

I also listened to Kanye West's mixtape "Can't Tell Me Nothing", which was mixed by Plain Pat. This is really good -- you have to check it out. It's really listenable, you can listen to it from start to finish and not really get annoyed or bored with it. Even the skits are really entertaining (my favourite is the one on porn). My favourite track is the last one, Dreaming of Your Love, by Tony Williams. I think its really catchy. There are some snippets from Kanye's next official release and they sound pretty decent. He has really good taste and a lot of money, so he always gets really good samples. I'm not sure if the album will be as good as the mixtape though. I always find that the mix tape is where MCs, producers and DJs can really cut loose. They don't have to worry about producing hit singles and clearing samples so they can really do whatever.


Another gem that I listened to last week was the Beastie Boys new instrumental release "The Mix Up". I don't know if this out yet, I listened to an advance copy. This is in same vein as their "In Sound From Way Out". I like this one better than that the "In Sound ...". It's got these jazz-funk groves (lots of organ, Fender Rhodes electric piano and distorted guitar) laid over these big drums and heavy baselines. I think this has to be listened loud.

I also had a listen to the advance version of Yesterday's New Quintet "Yesterdays Universe". Madlib is involved. I'm not sure if he played all the instruments or if he's responsible for the music and arrangements and got some sidemen to play the stuff. This is an eclectic mix of music. There's some stuff that is latin-flavoured, other stuff is more straightforward jazz, some slower stuff, and then there are hard-edged jazz-funk grooves. You can pretty much tell the music is going to change by the artist name, each artist name on the CD is associated with a different style of music -- but you won't be able to predict the style. Overall, this is pretty decent. There's some stuff I like more than other things, but still it's relatively solid. I'd put this as a lot better than most of the stuff they try to pass off as jazz these days that gets used as background music at many restaurants.