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Showing posts with label gang starr. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gang starr. Show all posts
Friday 20 September 2019
Maybe This Can Last Forever
I found this the other day via a Facebook group a friend added me to, a four track release from the middle of last year from a label called Giegling, based in the German town of Weimar (a place with some pertinent 20th century political history but not necessarily renowned for house and minimal dub techno). The e.p. was/is vinyl only and apart from their appearance on streaming media the four tracks contained within the grooves of the 12" don't seem to be available on any download sites. Some copies of the vinyl are advertised for sale at Discogs, starting at £66.67 and heading all the way up to €250 so I don't expect to getting my mitts on a copy any time soon.
Maybe by Kettenkarussell is sublime- lush washes of synth and deep house drums, rising and swelling before the snare rattles in at around a minute and then the vocal, a repeated phrase borrowed from Love Like This by Faith Evans, and perfectly nails that point between happiness and sadness, darkness and dawn, coming at you in waves. Heady, spine tingling stuff.
After that the tracks that make up the rest of the e.p. are a little more abstract, revealing themselves over time, subtle and nuanced and less immediate than Maybe but just as capable of worming their way into the brain. Schlange by Ateq is breakbeat led, minimal techno, understated Teutonic machine funk. Tecsol by Edward is squiggly, loopy acid that breaks down into something quite serene after three minutes thirty-five and then heads off again for six more minutes of synth- mangling adventure. Moment Of Youth by Map.ache is glitchy, minimal techno, built around insistent drums, a twinkling riff and a Gang Starr sample.
Labels:
ateq,
edward,
faith evans,
gang starr,
kettenkarussell,
map.ache,
robert frank
Sunday 25 June 2017
Various Artists
Back in 1991 this Various Artists compilation was stuck on my turntable for what seemed like months. The acid jazz scene had been born and in the USA jazz flavoured hip hop was briefly the cutting edge, partly led by Spike Lee's Mo' Better Blues film in 1990. This all fed into the emerging trip hop scene too I think. The Rebirth Of Cool was a fourteen track compilation opened by Gang Starr's Jazz Thing, with a swinging beat and pulsing bassline from DJ Premier and Guru's effortless rhymes recounting the history of jazz and its place importance now/then.
Jazz Thing
There are many fine moments among the rest of the songs and artists- X Clan's Raise The Flag, MC Mello, Dream Warriors, Stetsasonic's brilliant Talkin' All That Jazz, Galliano and Young Disciples from London's Acid Jazz label and Young MC. Between 1991 and 1998 4th And Broadway put out a further seven volumes and it lost its way a bit. I bailed out after Volume 2 but this one, the first, was a definite winner.
Thursday 28 May 2015
Now What You Hear Is Not A Test
In 1991 CJ Mackintosh remixed Gang Starr's Take A Rest, starting with the 'Now what you hear is not a test' sample and then housifying it from there. This didn't go down too well with the goosedown jacket fraternity but hip-house had its place and I still like this remix, even if it is a tad dated. Guru and DJ Premier made their music sound so effortless.
Thursday 18 July 2013
It's A Long Way To Go When You Don't Know Where You're Going
It's funny- having not listened to any hip-hop for years, not deliberately anyway, I've been undergoing a bit of a phase. Some select tracks have found their way onto the portable mp3 player that makes my commute more fun. Gang Starr have two songs on it at the moment but having listened to them this week they could end up with a lot more. I loved at least three of their albums back in the day- Step In The Arena, Daily Operation and Hard To Earn. Gang Starr often managed a perfect blend of Guru's easy flowing lyrics and DJ Premier's beats and sounds, a stripped back, minimal, economic sound. This one is a really good example...
And from Hard To Earn...
A Long Way To Go
The Edwin La Dell lithograph up top, Woburn Urns, is about as un-hip hop as it gets. Juxtapositions- I shit 'em (as Reg Presley never said).
Labels:
dj premier,
edwin la dell,
gang starr,
guru,
lithographs
Sunday 29 July 2012
No Time To Play
During the summer of 1993 (which was *shakes head* nineteen years ago) one of the most played records in my room was Guru's Jazzmatazz. The Jazzmatazz album was a different beast from Gang Starr (who I also loved) replacing two turntables and a microphone with live instruments, loads of guests, loved up vibe. This song is the sound of summer, perfect now that summer has finally arrived in north-west England (or it did, last couple of days have eased off a bit on the sunshine and heat), spot on for a Sunday morning too. Dusty drumbeat, vinyl crackle, Ronny Jordan's sprightly guitar, Guru's laid back rhyme and DC Lee exhorting us to not waste any time, do it now, get out there, seize the day 'cos life is short y'know, all that kind of stuff. Never no time to play.
I loved Jazzmatazz Volume 1. I bought Volume 2 and played it maybe once. Until I googled it just now I'm not sure I even knew there were a Volume 3 and a Volume 4. Guru died last April.
No Time To Play
Labels:
dc lee,
gang starr,
guru,
jazzmatazz,
ronny jordan
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