Musical Selections

I listened to a lot of really interesting music this week. Here are the highlights.

Young Holt Unlimited Plays Super Fly I had no idea who they are, but i saw the title and i was interested. Basically, its most of the super fly sound track. It's a little different than Curtis Mayfield's version, but pretty close in spirit. If I would have to describe it, its probably got more new orleans feel to it (i'm guessing these guys are from the south) -- so it doesn't have the hard edge that the original does. It's still pretty decent.

Raekwon Only Built 4 Cuban Linx. This has to be my favourite hip hop album of all time. I just play this one from end to end. Although its a Raekwon solo effort, Ghostface Killah plays a prominent role on it. The production is by the RZA and he didn't go cheap on the beats or anything. The other members of the Wu Tang appear on a few tracks. What I like about this is that there is a sweeping narrative about dealing cocaine running through the whole album. This is hardcore at its finest. A definite must listen. An epic hip hop album.

For a change of pace how about Herbie Hancock's soundtrack for Michelangelo Antonioni's Blow-Up. I fell asleep in front of the TV a few weeks ago and woke up to see that Blow-Up was playing on TCM. The movie has a pretty good soundtrack. Herbie did most of it, that is the jazz stuff on it. The Yardbirds also have a tune on it. I guess this would be from the Jeff Beck era, but according to Wikipedia both Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page appear on the track, which is called Stroll On" but has a riff that's similar to "Smokestack Lightning" -- not there's anything wrong with the riff. But getting back to Herbie, its a little different than his solo work with Blue Note from around the same period. This stuff is probably a little more atmospheric, which I guess it has to be because it is a soundtrack. There's no real overall sound to it -- some of the tracks are slow jazz, while some have a real 60s groove to them. However, one thing that you see throughout is that the bass lines feature really prominently. If you remember Deelite's "Groove is in the Heart" with that really cool base line, well the song they sampled is on this sound track ("Bring Down the Birds"). Overall, this is a really cool (and very rate) album that is worth checking out.

For the mellow selection, King Tubby Herb Dub- Collie Dub. King Tubby produces really good dub. His dub style is a lot slower and heavier than others. This is a really good selection of dubs. A few of the tracks of this one made it on to my super heavy dub play list.