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Looper's Delight
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On Friday, February 3, 2006, at 09:17 AM, Rainer Thelonius Balthasar Straschill wrote: >> The worst is that I often find material that I think is >> hip-hop and that I like! and when I play it to people, I'm >> informed, "that's not hip-hop".... > > Well, on the other hand, after I told a fellow musician that I liked > Boards > of Canada and he replied "so you do like hip hop" and I couldn't > believe > that they are hip hop, he told me "to some people, what we just played > is > hip hop"... I learned years ago never to dismiss entire genres of music. It's too easy to say, "I hate Country", for example, and then hear an Hank Williams tune that just tears your apart. Even easy listening had its geniuses, Matin Denny, Esquivel, Les Baxter, etc. Hip Hop is the same, there's the commercial stuff that sucks, but there are people working in the margins doing fascinating and innovative stuff. Always look to the margins... > >> Do send us your list of interesting hip-hop. I am still open >> to hearing it. > > Steve Coleman & Metrics > > Great, great record. That record literally determined the direction my music has been heading for the last few years. Other Hip Hop to check out: Mike Ladd: Anything he's involved with is at least interesting, and often brilliant. "Welcome to the Afterfuture" from 1999 is up there with "Fear of a Black Planet" as one of the all-time best hip hop albums. He's collaborated with a number of jazz musicians, his record with Vijay Iyer's band, "In What Language," is just terrific, a theater piece about travelling while non-white in the post 9-11 world, it also has some astounding playing. His latest, "Presents Father Devine" is perhaps his most straight-ahead rap album, but it's very cool. Subtle: Rick W. mentioned the Bay-Area based Anticon collective, Subtle is sort of a supergroup of Anticon members. Subtle is an amazing live band, with a drummer who doubles guitar, an electric cellist, a keyboardist who doubles woodwinds, a guy who is a virtuoso at tapping out live beats on an MPC, and Dose One, one of the most innovative rappers I've heard, he's faster (and whiter-sounding) than Eminem, with a serious taste for the surreal. He's also a great frontman, he'd be a terrific stand-up comedian. I saw them on one of their last shows with Dax Pierson, who was unfortunately paralyzed in a tragic tour van accident last year. Subtle is still going, though, and very much worth seeing. Blackalicious: Their "Blazing Arrow" disc from a few years ago is what commercial hip hop should be, catchy as hell, great grooves, lots of soul, and smart content. Their new disc "The Craft" is more socially conscious, and gets more funky. It reminds me of Curtis Mayfield's great stuff from the '70's. There's many more, but I got no more time to write...