Having spent a week in London I’m overwhelmed with a strange mix of both utter tiredness and over-the-top energy and motivation. Revitalized if you will. All of my love to everybody who welcomed me so warmly in the Big Smoke, no need to mention names, you know who you are. The all of you: Thanks!
Hoping to be back in the UK in a big month’s time, in the meantime, here’s a collection of snapshots taken with photo cam and mobile phone cam:
Last week Moodymann was interviewed at RedBullMusicAcademy, I was in the are but had to miss out on the lecture. Luckily, I did see his in-store gig at BlackMarket Records, and had a little chat with one of the dames accompanying the man, the myth. The man is now the proud owner of the official JtotheC 7″, and I must say, he was utterly charmed by that.
Anyhow, watch the 1h30 lecture with Moodymann at RBMA:
Rollerball enigma and silhouetted man-on-the-mic Kenny Dixon Jr. aka Moodymann is one of the most enigmatic and charismatic figures that house music ever bred. Despite his refusal to give interviews and play the press-and-promo game, Kenny’s voice has been clearly amongst the loudest, when it comes to preserving the rich heritage of Afro-American music, while fighting the music industry powers that be. Blessed with an immaculate way of sampling, he takes stems from blues and soul, and respectfully takes them onto the next level – just check his Tribute (To The Soul We Lost) ode to Marvin Gaye for proof. From his dark and dusty deep house tunes on Peacefrog, Planet E and his own KDJ label, to his more recent outings on the R&B-drenched Mahogani Music imprint as well as his 2009 sure-fire anthem Freaky MF, Moodymann’s fingerprint has stayed unmistakable. Even a so-called techno tune like Dem Young Sconies sounds like nothing and nobody else on this planet. You can’t kick this feeling when it hits!
At the age of 25 Jean-Michel Basquiat was at the height of his career, this was when a friend captured him painting, talking about his art, and existing. Two years prior to his death in 1988. The footage was put away for over 20 years and has now resulted into ‘Basquiat – The Radiant Child’, check out the trailer:
The OST features music from Mike D and Ad Rock.
Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child was released on Feb 21st.
In a couple of weeks you’ll be hit with a load of new Kid Sublime beats, straight out of the basement of our Amsterdam-based cousin. In all honesty, I am not familiar with A.Keys’ discography, but I do support his aim to produce Alicia’s next album, because he’s got the beats.
In the meantime, this next video has Jacob explaining what is to him the best of Alicia Keys (in Dutch, no subtitles unfortunately). Jacob, go!
Shout to Ikbennowhere for making this video, thanks!
Some more (English-spoken) Kid Sublime videos after the bump: Continue Reading »
So, off I went then, following the arrow to London, and well, I’ve arrived. The Big Smoke they call it, yet I haven’t figured out why…
Anyhow, I’ll be in Londontown for a week, interviewing and meeting and sipping coffee, blogging might be at a low because of that. Or it might not… Getting a needed bit of fresh air though, over here in the Big Smoke. Brilliant.
Been working on putting JtotheC on the map almost every day now, it seems hard to believe I didn’t blog an update with all of the news regarding my main man in over a month. A lot of things have happened since the release of the 7″ single, let’s break it down for you:
Firstly, if you didn’t get your hands on a copy of the single yet, make sure you do, for even a blind man sees this will be worth a lot of loot in the near future, and even the deaf feel how this is coming straight from the heart. The single is now available both on RushHour and HHV.de and will be up on juno.co.uk soon!
One of the biggest news items however, is the latest addition to the live line-up. None other than Peter Lesage joined J’s Bad Mothas. Renowned for playing the keys with plenty of killer acts, such as Moiano, Baloji, Flip Kowlier, Gabriel Rios, etc. etc. this, is a dream come through, for we’ve always been a fan of PtotheL!
As of now, JtotheC and the Bad Mothas are now also official ambassadors of Puma’s Suede Road, with an in-store gig this saturday afternoon (4pm) at Avenue, in Antwerp, don’t miss out! (Fingers crossed Puma will get him to tour the Japan Puma stores too, right? haha)
Next to that, here’s more occasions to catch J and the Bad Mothas live on stage, cold-rocking it:
March 6 – Avenue, Antwerp
March 24 – Tavernier, Brussels
April 24 – Cahier, Hoogstraten
Sept 25 – Can’art, Kuurne
Rumours are he’d be hitting the Dutch massives any time soon, if so, you’ll hear it right away! Festivals too, are showing their first signs of interest… Don’t sleep ladies and gens!
Dâm Funk needs no introduction for the real on-point cats out there, for the new visitors however, check the interview on On-Point TV, get with the program and then tune in on DâmFunk’s lecture on RedBullMusicAcademy in London.
In which he explains his vision on many things, and plays some tracks of the music he made back in the days, in 1989 (demos which will be released in a couple of months as the ‘Adolescent Funk’ album). Which is brilliant if you know he’s just released his debut album this year.
Cali’s modern-day funkateer numero uno on discipline, the importance of genre names, bringing class back to funk, and why you should always stick to Plan A.
“I don’t mind having a genre as a tag or a definition. …I’m a cat that… I like genres, it’s fun to me. I don’t want to take the easy way out as a artist and say I like everything, I think it’s good when somebody stands for something. Don’t be afraid to stand up for that style that you do, do that style and then if you want to do another style, try that, but stand for something! If you don’t stand for something you’re afar from anything.”
Last month was Dilla month, remembering it’s been four years since the death of a man that flipped music production in so many ways, a lot of us still don’t get. With that, some unreleased video footage has surfaced and some new videos have been made. I didn’t want to plug each and every video out there as fast as it popped up, but I think this is a good time to share a couple of these new Dilla videos with you.
Starting of with this Dilla interview, shot in 2002 in Toronto, Canada. Personally, I had never seen a video like this before, with Dilla explaining why he made ‘Fuck the police’. Had me wondering where the rest of this video interview is…
Chatroulette.com… If you haven’t heard about it yet, no worries, you didn’t really miss anything. But just for the sake of it and because it’s about as close to our Zeitgeist as it gets, do check it out. Take your time, spend an hour on chatroulette, seriously, it’s sociological field research.
If you don’t want to go through the nasty perverts or the insults which will be thrown at you, here’s quite an accurate study of chatroulette, which gets amusing halfway through it. Simply brilliant, like these accurate quotes:
“It transports you around the world into a stranger’s life, and does it over and over and over again.”
“They’re gone, just like that. This is called getting nexted.”
“He said you can be someone else. It’s an interesting thought, but I struggle just to be.”
The second time is better than the first, at least that’s what they say, and the lords know we’ll do our utmost to live up to the reputation. Being: Release will present you the finest of Belgium’s underground massive, if you will. So don’t stress if these names appear new to you, that’s what we’re aiming for.
The first edition of Release (back in October) saw us putting spots on highly talented bedroom artists such as JtotheC, InfinitSkills, Dynooo, i-Sa and San Soda. Alongside young artists showcasing their visual work, people such as Gunter Blokken aka Eckelwood, Lizairo, D-Composition, Sir-5, Sergej Culumarevic, wHo?, Leonard Facteur, Mathieu Cadet aka Maty and myself.
The idea was initiated by the fine people over at OndaSonora, who teamed up with Laidback.be and On-Point, for the simple sake of giving the finest of Belgium’s bedrooms a stage, a proper sound, some walls, some spots shining light, some beer and overall good vibes. Last time a highly impressive line-up was put together, and with the massive response, De Beursschouwburg, at the very centre of Brussels, seemed too small.
Still, we decided to continue in the same way. April 17th, same concept, same free entrance, same quality guaranteed. And more. Stay tuned for more updates. For now, here’s who we’ve got lined-up so far:
Title, Shepherd, SubReachers and 72 Soul (live gigs) + Sensiloop and Lowdjo as dj’s. More will follow soon.
Want be a part of this? Feel free to apply, you’ll find all the info you need over here, at re-lease.be!
Though it might seem like the long play on a lazy day concept has been slacking a bit recently, rest assured we’re still here, and will continue to hit you with the documentary niceness in life.
RIP – A Remix Manifesto is an open-source documentary which you may have seen already, as it was an instant classic right from the start, and especialy since the makers of the film put it online, up for grabs, for you and yours to enjoy, that’s how we like it:
The album ‘Good Things’ is dropping sometime in 2010, but the fine people over at StonesThrow are already blessing us with the mp3 of what seems to be the lead single to Aloe Blacc’s new baby:
I Need A Dollar is the name and this is one killer tune. Not sure how to feel about the fact it’s also used as the main theme for HBO’s new ‘How To Make It In America‘ series. Without any doubt a must see, but I just hope I can keep my enthusiasm for the tune, because it sure is a big one, sing along everybody:
Download:
Aloe Blacc – I Need A Dollar MP3 – 128kbps
Make sure to get the single when it drops, featuring the instrumental version and Take Me Back, which sounds brilliant too!
Low brow art. Now there’s a term I hadn’t heard yet. And it might not last long either, now that it’s coined ‘New Brow Art’ already. Hell, to me it’s just young cats making art(work).
I’m guessing low brow is the style now known as underground art, often generalized as street art, or worse, urban art. More than the streets, the movement grew out of comics, album artwork, classic illustrating and punk. The work in the streets is most mediatized though, of course.
After seeing the highly dissapointing “Bomb It” last year, I’m afraid “New Brow : Contemporary Underground Art” might be another documentary over-analysing the current art movements, but I’m giving this one a fair chance. If only because it features Robert Williams, founder of Juxtapoz magazine, now there’s a voice I haven’t heard that often yet:
If you’re down with the grooveness you’re down with Strictly Niceness, and needless to say you’ve got taste for that good CheebaCheeba.
That sentence makes perfect sense to all discocats and funkateers residing in the Brussels area (and far beyond). This Saturday february 13th Deejay Kwak and Bernard Dobbeleer invited us to come rock Strictly Niceness. Us, that’s FunkyBompa, Vic&lloyd and Shimmy Timmy on the vocals alongside the infamous superstarstud JtotheC.
The gods must be with us because it appears to be the Saint-Valentin edition. Hell, you better come swift on your toes, because I’ll be rocking them soft red shoes. Because it’s nice like that:
The notorious MF Doom is coming to town, March 9th, at VK*, brought to you by Da Bluefunk District. And well.. as soon as the word started spreading I had to get busy portraying the villain, a simple need I felt deep down inside, and off you go.
Love it or leave it, MF Doom for you:
For more, here’s the little portfolio site.
Huge shout-out to my mans J.Neversleeps and JtotheC for designing the flyer and to Peter Forret for helping me out with the photos!
Apollo is here! A brand new monthly all about film and music, articles written by an all-star cast of top journalists, freelance forces from all corners of our petit Belgian media landscape, brought together for the sake of quality. Think Humo, think Focus Knack, think De Standaard, think De Morgen… Think again, Apollo is your go from now on.
I can state that quite subjectively, because I’m assigned ‘responsible virtual reality’, meaning you’ll find me behind the site and other facets of onlineness.
I did get to contribute two small articles for the actual magazine, since I’m assigned for two sections: Blog Party (now running with Awesome Tapes From Africa) and Barely Legal (now presenting 18-year old Kyle Hall, talking about booty and getting it on…) If you’d have any tips for this, artists you consider ‘barely legal’ for any reason whatsoever, or any blogs you think should be featured, send me a message : alex[at]apollo.be.
Apollo is currently available in Brussels and Flanders (both Belgium, yes) Get your ass straight to the supermarket, newspaperstand or you know what, get a subscription, and get with the program right now! (also for the twitterati and fans)
Never did I own a boombox myself, but surely one day I’ll come across one of these bad boys on a local flea market or thrift store (and not ridiculously high priced). Fascinating to see, the boombox – or ghettoblaster – might be considered hiphop right now, but it hasn’t always been like that, you can blast your Led Zeppelin or your Bach tapes through the speakers too, of course.
Reminding me of young cats nowadays walking around with their cell phones blasting bass-less mp3’s, on the streets, in the metro, in the bus…
“People only had one volume, and that volume was loud!”
“Now the EQ on top of that, that’s grand living!”
The grime, the gritty. When it comes to BXL aka Brussels, there’s virtually no escaping it. Five chapters deep, and whoever wrote this scenario is getting deeper and deeper into his or her twisted little mind. The brutal force of a golf club going head-to-head with the elegance of the samurai warrior?
Is that how the pizza man and the detective lost their memory? If so, what role does the shadow samurai play in this? And where is that abandoned torture basement? All of that for the secrets of Versailles hidden in Les Marolles?
Will this madness ever come to an end? Continue Reading »
He’s back! My man Kid Sublime has been a little off the radar over the last couple of months, but I just come to discover he decided to do a video series, keeping the fans up to date about what he’s currently doing.
Most likely my favourite producer out of Amsterdam, and I’m excited to hear he’s got a new album coming out sometime this year ‘on a label out of Los Angeles’..
Watch him get his webcam groove on, and play those keys, god I love videos like this, soulful on the lo-fi tip:
Damn, he’s even on twitter nowadays, the Kid is back peoples!
Did I mention already he was the first to release the voice of JtotheC on vinyl? Alongside Defari, Frank’n'Dank and Camp Lo, that was a brave and visionary move of him on his Rappin Blak album. You’ve got to love it.
After the great noise around Martyn’s recent interview on On-Point TV, the fine people of Fabric decided to bless me with a special package of 5 mix cd’s, to give a away to you. (Well, that’s not entirely correct, I asked them kindly, didn’t I?)
Anyhow, Martyn’s mix is the 50th installment in the great tradition of Fabric mix cd’s. And the selection bangs hard. Don’t expect too much dubstep though, just hard-hitting uptemponess tearing the roof off any place where you’ll be listening to it.
The first five people who mail me the name of Martyn’s long-time friend who’s behind the artwork of his 3024 label – and whose t-shirt he’s wearing in the video – gets a free cd. Be quick!
This is it. WUK! On-Point Records is a fact, and with that you’ll soon be the owner of the cult item of the year: JtotheC’s ultimate sing-along soul workout ‘Nono’ on a neat 7-inch vinyl single, along with a killer Luigi remix and the unreleased ‘Stomper’.
If you’re not that much into vinyl, no worries, download the Nono 7inch for free (320kbps versions, yes), and for the vinyl aficionados or straight-up supporters: the singles should be available Friday at De Kreun and Saturday at CheebaCheeba.
The main idea behind the single isn’t that much about writing songs, as it is about testing sounds. Catching a mood in a crazily captivating way. To illustrate that, Gunter – Eckelwood – Blokken, made a short mood piece of JtotheC checking his sounds and getting ready for his gig, whilst inventing a new dance, now called ‘the security’. Everybody now, bounce:
From now on, you’ll find JtotheC with all of his videos and releases on his own site, and on his facebook fanpage, of course, needless to say, it was about that time.
For more info behind the tracks on the single… Continue Reading »
Fifth part in the series of 2010 predictions you’ve all came to love over the past weeks. At least that’s how it seems, looking back at the amazing buzz last episode stirred up. That is quite unlikely to ever happen again, nonetheless, feel free to drop your thoughts in the comment section, you know how it works.
Last time, it took my man Deluge aka PunchDouble six months to compile a list, so basically it’s only half a year ago when I blogged his 2009 predictions. Luckily, he stepped his game up though, and came correct this time, in time for the deadline even! And serving you a proper list of names for you to keep your eyes open for in the year that is.
Get with the program,… Continue Reading »
I mentioned it before, and slowly but surely have been spreading some words about it, but yet, it is true: a new music and film magazine is currently being wrapped up, and will be in stores February 4th. Apollo is the name, quality content is the mission. I’ve been asked to coordinate the online content and to contribute some features for the print magazine as well. Which is great!
When I mention the fact there is indeed a new magazine coming up, questions usually arise, and I’m happy to see the founder of Apollo featured on the WallStreetJournal to give some more insight in this exciting new project, of which I’m very happy to be involved with. WSJ invited Apollo to write upon the launch of the magazine, read part one in the series, and stay tuned:
Early birds, catch us on facebook or twitter already)! Continue Reading »
While visiting the city of NewYork last Summer, I had the chance to sit down with Amir Abdullah – also known as Amir of Kon&Amir fame, worldwide renowned kings of crate digging and record collecting. Amir is currently label boss of WaxPoetics Records, so I decided to talk to him about his adventures in digging, his vision on running a label, his work with Kon, and pimps and whores, of course.
Welcome along, it’s On-Point TV, all the way from WaxPoetics Headquarters and its noisy air-conditioning system:
Get your hands on those precious WaxPoetics Records, because… Continue Reading »
1, 2,3,… Part four in the ongoing series of 2010 predictions, and in comes Amelia of Putmeonit.com, one the nicest music blogs I’ve discovered over the last couple of months.
Amelia: “When Alex asked me to make some predictions for 2010 I realised it wasn’t easy to separate what I would like to happen from what probably will happen. This is a relatively optimistic view on 2010 since I will be blogging, producing live events, promoting great artists and generally doing my best to help make it a good year in music!” – photo: Shan Phearon
Get with the program,… Continue Reading »
What if you’d use the facade of your office or house to share some information? Well, the concept is as old as promotion itself, but not when you do it like they do in Japan: by putting a huge QR-code on the building.
Readable with your mobile phone, the code – which consists out of big sticker dots attached to the windows – reveals all types of information, from info about the shops inside, to twitter users walking around inside, to christmas wishes, if the season’s there.
Not bad, not bad at all:
Thanks Sofie for the tip! Continue Reading »
Dutch electronic music pioneer Dick Raaijmaakers was brought to our attention by Martyn while filming in Eindhoven. (You’ve seen the video by now, right?)
This next short documentary show Raaijmaakers explaining his groundbreaking work, for VPRO program Atlantis, back in 1988. He gets to breakdown his electronic composition Five Canons (1964-1967). He explains how the influence of Belgian composer Karel Goeyvaerts from whom he shows a letter in which Goeyvaerts explains his vision on noise, and making “little towers of sound”.
A must-see for anybody even remotely interested in electronic music of any genre or form. Unfortunately there are no subtitles on this one, but sure enough, this is a must-see, it’s the language of music/noise if you will:
The music is available on a 3 cd-box with a 120 page guidebook on Basta Records
Third installment in the continuing series of lists with things and names and thoughts for you to keep your eyes open for in the year 2010. In comes BLA, aka one half of OndaSonora, which you should know from their FM Brussel Radioshow, founders of the Release concept, their excellent blog, brilliant ‘We Play The Funk Electric‘ podcast, Bart’s grumpy comments around the web, or their insightful tweets.
All that to say, OndaSonora is on top of their game, surprisingly though, this year around, the list is a bit out of the ordinary, not that much namedropping this time… Which is nice:
BLA: ‘This year I’m not going to try to predict the future. More going to give you what I hope will get a wider recognition in 2010. Not much a believer of trendspotting, hypes or any other elusive form of making yourself interesting with another man’s work. So here’s a very personal lists of people and things I believe in.’
Get with the program,… Continue Reading »
Following my very own predictions for the year to come, and following Martyn’s video portrait on On-Point TV, here is the second installment of ‘2010 : All Eyes On…’ hosted by Martyn.
With his debut album ‘Great Lengths’ Martyn has made one of the albums of last year – rated as the second best album of 2009 by Mixmag, according to whom: “The Dutchman’s debut was one of those great unclassifiable albums; part dubstep, part techno, part garage, all coming together to create the best underground album since Burial’s ‘Untrue’”.
You’ll learn more about this man in one of the next On-Point TV feature videos very soon. Until that time, take not of this selection of people we should keep our eyes open for in the year to come.
Presented by Martyn, the self-acclaimed Indiana Jones of Beatport, get with the program,… Continue Reading »
With his ‘Great Lengths’ album, Martyn made one of the albums of last year, perfectly blending his influences ranging from Detroit techno, Chicago house over his past in drum’n'bass to currently recrafting the sound of dubstep. This man is big.
Hailing from Eindhoven and currently residing in Washington DC, we got the chance to meet up with Martyn in Opwijk and Antwerp, Belgium. Because of the tightness of the schedule, we decided to postpone the interview though, and Martyn invited us to his hometown, Eindhoven, the Netherlands. Welcome along, it’s On-Point TV:
So of we went, hopping on and off trains, losing tickets, rebuying tickets, etc. etc. But it was all worth it, to hear Martyn talk about his upcoming in music, his influences, the history of his city and it’s Detroit connection, his videogaming brother, his seclusion from the scene and finally… the second-album-syndrome.
Monday January 11th, legendary London-based club Fabric is releasing the 50th installment in their continuing series of killer mixes. Make sure to get your copy of that.
With Fabric 50, Martyn intertwines the essential elements of what makes his own style so pristine and easily recognisable, fusing dancefloor ready percussion with that element of raw soul – whether it’s vocal led or simply inferred with emotive chords and synthesizers that harbour those distinct frequencies that positively shimmer. Anyone who has witnessed Martyn meticulously construct one of his DJ sets over the tail end of 2009 can testify to the pitch perfect, unfathomably smooth beat and vibe matching. Whilst the mix is loaded with welcome surprises like Hudson Mohawke’s ‘Joy Fantastic’ and Levon Vincent’s ‘Air Raid’ – tracks that might not work on every dancefloor – it’s an honest and healthy glimpse into the Dutchman’s current DJ perspective.
Shout-outs: Martyn, Jazz Neversleeps, Erosie, De Effenaar, Nijdrop, Subscape, Stad Spark, Fabric, and you.
Last month I was invited to join and capture a short yet intimate interview moment, as Philippe Coicou and Bernard Dobbeleer had set up a meeting with Tony Allen, one of the world’s finest drummers, and ambassador of afrobeat music.
Due to technicalities both and sound and light are quite off on this video, I’ll take the blame on that, but don’t let it stop you from listening to Tony Allen’s wise words, speaking about producers sampling his drums, using his music ‘upside-down’, drummers looking for ‘the one’, the current revival of afrobeat, his collaborations with other musicians and bands, etc.
Loving the vibe in this one, tune in, for A Talk With Tony:
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