Video: Evy Jane -Sayso

Bandcamp:

http://store.kingdeluxe.ca/album/evy-jane-12

2012 keeps bringing good things my way. The good folks over at King Deluxe are preparing their first physical release in Evy Jane‘s Sayso 12″. The project focuses on slithering alt-RnB, built on the quality and sensibilty of UK bass and filtered through a lens smeared with what’s left of post-rave culture. Yeah, that was an elaborate description, but Vancouver’s Evy Jane is not easy to describe. This is a nice maturation for King Deluxe – a smooth comedown from their erratic, beatcentric catalogue. Head over to Bandcamp and preview the single, which also has a couple pro refixes from Vancity bass stalwarts Max Ulis and Taal Mala, and pre-order the vinyl.

Video: Paul White – The Doldrums

I remember originally reviewing this track as the B-side to Paul White’s phenomenal Guilty Simpson collabo, “Trust”. Both sides of that digital single hit as hard as the day of their release, only now both have respective visual accompaniments (the visuals for side A are right here). “The Doldrums” is another one of White’s forays into deep, dark psychedelia, complete with some strange dialogue in the intro and a vocoded vocal rhythm as the tracks main draw. How the visuals are relevant to the audio is anyone’s guess, which is consistent with Paul White’s affinity with the tripped out and unexpected.

Video: Shlohmo Interview With Join the Studio

Welcome to 2012.

Shlohmo Interview from JoinTheStudio on Vimeo.

Here’s a nice video to kick off the year: the dude Shlohmo (who just grabbed the number 1 spot on Rare Frequencies favorite beat albums of 2011) speaks wth Join The Studio about the evolution of his music, among other things. He’s as humble as his music would have you believe.

Video: The Roots – Sleep (Ft. Aaron Livingston)

Well, we have to finish what we start. This is the finale in the 4 -part video series accompanying the new album from the Roots.

Video: The Foodchain – Dear Industry

and SLAP! Just got smashed by this hot new project by Denver rap collective The Foodchain. It’s called Brunch and it’s rubbing me in all the right ways. The beats (created by the outfit’s in-house production team) are hot and the 4 MC’s (who they’ve dubbed “the offense”) match them perfectly with cool, soulful delivery. Full review of the album soon. Until then, here’s the visuals for lead-off joint “Dear Industry” and get over to Bandcamp and download their Brunch LP for free.

Video: The Roots – Stomp (Ft. P.O.R.N.)

After “Tip The Scale” I began to realize that this series of videos was going to be less about narrative and more about giving undun‘s lead character some context. ”Stomp” has proven that to be true. I was hoping for some of the story to be told through these amazing visuals, but beggars can’t be choosers. It follows who I can only assume to be Redford Stephens, the concept album’s protagonist, as he gets up to some more grimy business.

Cover art and press release below:

“At this point in our career we’d like for our work to have a unifying theme, and an experiential quality. We’ve been intentionally making our albums shorter in length so that they can be experienced as a continuous work. The music is band-oriented with an eye on the moody cinematic. As a DJ, I am the King of playlists, but I don’t want our albums to feel like a playlist or a mixtape for that matter. We want to tell stories that work within the album format and we want the stories to be nuanced and useful to people. Undun is the story of this kid who becomes criminal, but he wasn’t born criminal. He’s not the nouveau exotic primitive bug-eyed gunrunner like Tupac’s character Bishop in Juice… he’s actually thoughtful and is neither victim nor hero. Just some kid who begins to order his world in a way that makes the most sense to him at a given moment… At the end of the day… isn’t that what we all do?” –OkayPlayer

Video: Blu – DOINNOTHIN’ (Ft. U-God)

BLU – DOINNOTHIN’ FT. UGOD (PRODUCED BY FLYING LOTUS) from david m. helman on Vimeo.

Spoiler alert! When Rare Frequency looks back on the year and chooses its favorite albums, No York will rank high. I’m not shocked by the amount of hate the LP received from the backpacking boom-bap revivalist sector, all of whom were dying for Blu to remaster Below the Heavens and call it a day. I don’t, however, understand how they didn’t see this coming. Wait a minute, I’ve been over this before. Nevermind.

I like this video.

Video: The Roots – Tip The Scale (Ft. Dice raw)

Last week the Legendary Roots Crew debuted their video for “Make My”, the first of a 4-part video series accompanying their latest outing undun. Apparently they’ll be firing off the rest of the series fairly quickly, as “Tip The Scale” premiered via OkayPlayer today, less than a week later. It shares the same stunning visual style as the first, but doesn’t do much for the narrative. Maybe they don’t want to reveal too much.

Cover art and press release below:

“At this point in our career we’d like for our work to have a unifying theme, and an experiential quality. We’ve been intentionally making our albums shorter in length so that they can be experienced as a continuous work. The music is band-oriented with an eye on the moody cinematic. As a DJ, I am the King of playlists, but I don’t want our albums to feel like a playlist or a mixtape for that matter. We want to tell stories that work within the album format and we want the stories to be nuanced and useful to people. Undun is the story of this kid who becomes criminal, but he wasn’t born criminal. He’s not the nouveau exotic primitive bug-eyed gunrunner like Tupac’s character Bishop in Juice… he’s actually thoughtful and is neither victim nor hero. Just some kid who begins to order his world in a way that makes the most sense to him at a given moment… At the end of the day… isn’t that what we all do?” –OkayPlayer

The Roots – Make My (Ft. Big K.R.I.T.)

Some stark and stunning visuals to accompany the excellent, Rare Frequency approved, lead track from the Roots’ undun. 

Cover art and press release below:

“At this point in our career we’d like for our work to have a unifying theme, and an experiential quality. We’ve been intentionally making our albums shorter in length so that they can be experienced as a continuous work. The music is band-oriented with an eye on the moody cinematic. As a DJ, I am the King of playlists, but I don’t want our albums to feel like a playlist or a mixtape for that matter. We want to tell stories that work within the album format and we want the stories to be nuanced and useful to people. Undun is the story of this kid who becomes criminal, but he wasn’t born criminal. He’s not the nouveau exotic primitive bug-eyed gunrunner like Tupac’s character Bishop in Juice… he’s actually thoughtful and is neither victim nor hero. Just some kid who begins to order his world in a way that makes the most sense to him at a given moment… At the end of the day… isn’t that what we all do?” – OkayPlayer

Video: DOOM at RBMA

Lecture: DOOM (Madrid 2011) from Red Bull Music Academy on Vimeo.

This is an absolute treat. The man with the metalface, who rarely does interviews, sits down with the venerable Chairman Mao to talk about his music. NOT TO BE MISSED.