PUBLIC ENEMY Fear of a Black Planet (DEF JAM)
CLOUDLAND CANYON/MYTHICAL BEAST split (NOT NOT FUN)
VALET Blood Is Clean (KRANKY)
AFRIKA BAMBAATA & THE JAZZY 5 "Jazzy Sensation (Bronx Version)" (TOMMY BOY)
USTAD AMJAD ALI KHAN Indian Classical Maestros Vol. 2, Sarod (KITCHENS OF INDIA/VIRGIN)
CREAM Strange Brew: The Very Best of Cream (POLYDOR)
BIG AUDIO DYNAMITE II The Globe (COLUMBIA)
THE FROGS My Daughter The Broad (MATADOR)
OUTKAST "Phobia"
PAVEMENT "The Unseen Power Of The Picket Fence"
BEASTIE BOYS "It's The New Style (live)"
ABBEY LINCOLN "You And I"
ORNETTE COLEMAN "The Alchemy Of Scott LaFaro"

Side B of Fear of a Black Planet, at least Side B on the cassette, is such a serious run of burners. Super experimental helter-skelter Bomb Squad madness but still completely slamming.

Was impressed by the Silver-Tongued Sisyphus 12", and here's another nice head-turner of a track by Cloudland Canyon, uniquely wispy cosmic drone with eerie/airy vocals. I was a little surprised by the other side of the split, on which Mythical Beast kinda sound like Sinead O'Connor replacing Jean Smith in Mecca Normal to sing a heartfelt ballad. I was also surprised that I kinda liked it!

"Uniquely wispy cosmic drone with eerie/airy vocals" describes the Valet stuff pretty well too... also a haunting, intriguing, not-run-of-the-mill drone/song album. Kind of has a more digital than analog edge to it, with the song aspect emerging in surprising ways.

Listening to the sweet old-school hip-hop breakdown in the middle of Afrika Bambaata & the Jazzy 5's "Jazzy Sensation (Bronx Version)" got me and co-worker talking about how such breakdowns might be a disappearing art, which turned into a bit of a "kids these days" rant, about how contemporary hip-hop is so wall-to-wall produced, with excitement/energy/breathlessness/showbiz/compression, that nothing as casual as a breakdown can ever happen again... we decided that "It takes patience and humility to play a breakdown." (I actually said this.) Of course, maybe there's tons of sweet breakdowns in contemporary hip-hop... ultimately I just don't listen to enough of it to say. Haven't even listened to the latest Raekwon or Ghostface albums.

Anyone else peep these CDs that came for free with the grocery store purchase of delicious microwavable Indian food on the Kitchens of India label? Virgin Records has their name on the CDs, and the music is incredibly choice... it all sounds like it was recorded a while back, before MIDI and Pro Tools, before hip hop and techno and pop hybridization, just straight classical music played masterfully on acoustic instruments. Not sure exactly when it was recorded, but there is this on the fine print of this particular CD: "C & P 1996 N A Classical Audio Cassette Co. Mfg in India by: Jet Speed Audio Pvt. Ltd. 111, 7 Udyog Nagar, S.V. Road, Goregaon (West), Mumbai - 63." Looks like they were hitting the cassette vendors, Sublime Frequencies-style.

Heavy line: "I'll stay with you 'til my seas are dried up." Goes well with heavy riff. And whoah, check this out, I feel like I'm at a really good (and well dressed) Cream practice:



The Globe by Big Audio Dynamite II is such a guilt-free guilty pleasure, that somehow holds up very well in 2009. Wait, I know how: good tunes, fun experiments. Everything Sandinista was too out of shape to get to is on here. I never got into the Happy Mondays at all but I sure like it when Mick Jones tries to be them.

Co-worker dusted off The Frogs My Daughter The Broad but I can't really talk about it right now. Suffice to say that I can't believe how much we still lol'd at just about every song. What I'd really like to mention is the sweet mix-tape I made 12 years ago to round out Side B, after the 5 or 6 Frogs songs it took to get the whole album on a C90. Incredible opening with literally the only good thing about the entire Higher Learning movie, the song "Phobia" by Outkast from its soundtrack. Here's a youtube... check out the intense spoken intro and then the way that beat finally drops in at 1:23 underneath Andre's funky-ass creepazoid rapping. This ain't "Hey Ya"... I was actually scared of him then.



Followed that up with this humorous Pavement classic... I must've been cleaning out good tracks on otherwise lame comps, looking for an alternative to No Alternative. I'm not a huge Pavement fan, couldn't care less about this upcoming reunion or whatever, but I always liked 'em fine and not only do I still chuckle at this song, more importantly the guitars sound awesome.



Yep, the comp theory is correct, as the slammin' live Beastie Boys song is from some Free Tibet benefit type thing also from No Alternative, and the Abbey Lincoln cut is a wonderful Stevie Wonder cover from this 1992 Enja Records compilation. This all comes from working in a record store that had a lot of promos laying around in the early 90s. The Ornette track isn't from an otherwise lame compilation, I just put it on here because it's bonkers, recorded in 1961 by Coleman/Cherry/Lafaro/Blackwell.

Oh, here's that Beastie Boys track, it's awesome.