Rhythm Incursions – October 09

Despite it being nearly one week into November, we’re bringing you the October show which suffered the delaying combo of both my laptop dying and a rather nasty cold hitting me in the same week. The show was actually wrapped 2 weeks ago but we couldn’t get it out till now. Lucky you though, as you’ll be getting another show in a few weeks with our November edition.

I realised as I was putting the tracklist together that for some reason this month features a rather high number of freely available tracks. This is in part a reflection of my own listening habits (and the fact I spend way too much time on the internet) but also I think of the move by artists and labels to make more music available freely as a way to promote paying releases, gigs and other merchandise. Lastly I would also say that the increasing number of free tracks in our playlists this year is a reflection of the increase in quality in free music. Whereas before free tracks where often throwaway material, today an increasing number of artists are releasing bootlegs, remixes and their own tracks for free and keeping a high quality control on it. Again I think this is something that plays into the aforementioned ‘free music as promotion’ vehicle. All the artists with a freely available track in this month’s show also have physical, paying releases and quite a few are actually established artists in their own ’scenes’.

What about the music though? This month we take in a rather wide range of music, reflecting the diversity of what’s been trickling into our inbox/hands. From the psychedelic meets Afghani traditional music of Ariana Delawari to straight beats (and some incredible flips) from KenLo, fLako, Fulgeance and Dibiase via tribal house vibes from Blue Daisy, 21st century boogie from Dam Funk, hard-hitting hip hop from Kids in Tracksuits and Mr Lif and forward-thinking productions from Om Unit, Mike Slott and Talen. And that’s only part of it, there’s more and it’s all high quality as far as I’m concerned.

This month’s mini-feature is a tie-in with the 5th anniversary of the Hyperdub label. Headed by Kode 9, Hyperdub has long been a favourite at Rhythm Inc, with Trick regularly playing the label’s early releases as both the show and label share roughly the same birthdays. To celebrate their anniversary Hyperdub have curated an incredible compilation, called ‘5′, spanning two CDs or 5 12″s and featuring classic material from the label’s archive, unreleased one-offs and 15 or so brand new productions from the label’s artists and friends including names like Flying Lotus, Mala, Martin, Samiyam, Ikonika, Quarta330, and more. It’s fair to say that ‘5′ is the final nail in the coffin for lesser labels, if it was even needed, that shows just how influential and forward thinking Hyperdub has been as an independent over the years. From its humble beginnings to its current wide palette of sounds, Hyperdub continues to do what everyone least expects, and that’s just one of many reasons why we love them and their music. For the feature we’ve got four tracks from the compilation taking in The Bug under his King Midas Sound alias, Mala, Kode 9 and Samiyam – music as different as it comes and yet somehow logically intertwined.

So enough with the words, sit back and crank the volume for 2h of the latest and freshest music. And stay tuned for some special shows coming up in the month. For now enjoy!

Download the show (right click and save as)

Tracklist:
KenLo Craqnuques – Noir 19 – Taken from Noir beatape (free download)
Dday One – Natural Balance – Superdheadz
Ichiro – NarcoSystem – Oil Works
Frank n Dank – Shut It Down (devremix) – Unreleased (free download)
Geiom – Flic en Flac – Fabric (free download)
Reason or Romanza – Seven Uses of Potential Difference (Blue Daisy Tribal Remix) – Civil Music
Ariana Delawari – Laily Jan – David Lynch MC
Erikah Badu – Real Thing (fLako remix) – Unreleased (free download)
Sound Scientists – Evil Violin – DVent
Talen – The Morning Rush, An Oddatee Tale – Mouthwatering Records
Mini feature – Hyperdub 5
King Midas Sound – Meltdown – Hyperdub
Mala – Level Nine – Hyperdub
Kode 9 & Spaceape – Ghost Town – Hyperdub
Samiyam – Return – Hyperdub
Mini feature ends
Aufgang – Barok (Fulgeance remix) – Unreleased (free download)
Loops Haunt – Dusk Mechanics (Samoyed Remix) – Fortified Audio
Om Unit – Lavender – All City
Jose James – Black Magic (Untold remix) – Brownswood
Jose James – Black Eyed Susan – Brownswood
Little Dragon – Fortune (Afta 1 remix) – Unreleased (free download)
Dam Funk – Hood Pass Intact – Stones Throw
Kids in Tracksuit – Zone ft Mr Lif – Fluid Ounce
Filewile – Number One Kid (Robot Koch remix) – Mouthwatering records
Breakage and Skream – Skreakage – Digital Soundboy
Quest – The Unknown – Deep Medi Musik
Hyaku Mado – Red Line (Scorn remix) – Murder Channel
Sibian Mobile Disco – Cruel Intentions (Joker remix) – Unreleased (free download)
Helixir – Convultions – 7even
Sound Species – Psychedelic Xylophone – Unreleased (free download)
Mike Slott – 23 Halfs – LuckyMe (free download)
Jogger – Champing at the bit (live) – Magical Properties
Ave Blaste – Sega – Keep Up
Cignol – Tumnal – Alphabet Set
U-N-I – Castle Vee Re-Up ft Black Milk (prod. by Dibiase) – Taken from ‘Before There was Love’ mixtape (free download)

The beat generation interprets Sun Ra

Regardless of what you might think of the current beat/instrumental hip hop movement, one of the most interesting things about it is just how well the whole thing lends itself to the reinterpretation of other genres and classics. It’s no surprise considering that reinterpretation has been a cornerstone of hip hop production since the beginning, when loops and breaks were getting chopped up. Today though the new generation of producers are taking things further thanks in no small part to the internet and modern technology allowing people to link together regardless of distance and make use of a wealth of recorded music.

With this in mind, it was a surprise to see something pop up on twitter yesterday about a bunch of producers, including L.A’s Ras G, having released a mix of reinterpretations of Sun Ra. The surprise quickly turned to pleasure when I started listening to it. There isn’t a wealth of information about it, beyond a tracklist, some art (one of which is used in this post) and a link to a myspace page for Re:source who seem to be the mastermind behind this effort. Looking at the tracklist it features quite a few known names to us, such as the aforementioned Ras G, Powell from Paris, Elaquent from Canada and Ichiro from Tokyo. Can’t say I’m too familiar with all the others though a few names ring a bell. See below for yourself.

As for the music, as I said it’s definitely worthy of your time and a keeper as far as I’m aware. It’s easy to see the inspiration that all the producers drew from, Sun Ra’s music, and yet they’ve all managed to come through with different takes, sounds, moods and atmospheres resulting in a 1h30 of instrumental goodness. Definitely a fitting tribute to an artist who I think would no doubt approve of such a project.

Looking on the myspace it seems the good people over at Monday Jazz are going to be airing this on their show, but in the meantime you can download it from the link below. Big thanks to @scaloni for the tip!

Download the mix here (via sendspace, zip file)

Alternative link:
Download the zip here

Tracklist:
Electric Egypt the invisible spectrum
Ras_G jouful noise!!!
Space Monk hello sun ra
Afro Bluu all systems go
SoulJim sun ra beat
Ichiro mori
Movementss cosmos
Powell popcorn contact
Skipless sometimes the universe speech
Samon Kawamura antique black
Sauce travel
SK.ILL 5:49 in the a.m.
Blak Maul china gate
Space Monk majestic waves
Stevo into the sun
Sudan Life what i learned from le sony’r
Elaquent calling planet earth
The Billion Dollar Quartet sun ra project
Cozmos one for the sun
Infinite Potentials not like planet earth
SK.ILL graveyard planet
-G-R-A-D-E- summer in paris
Ravage Beats 2012 sun ra 2012 mix
Don Bo anhk
Blunted Monks lars vertoht de sun ra et
Samon Kawamura imagination
Soul Kid shine like the sun
SoulJim Moon Shoes
-G-R-A-D-E- bad character
Dank Grooves the final sun
Jomac sun rawness
The Samurai i am sun ra
Depakote one for the sun
Sun Ra space is the place (Live)