The Audiozine

For starters, an apology: in 2007 there were no new posts to the Audiozine Listening Series. Two reasons: A) I was super busy with school and B) I am a huge procrastinator and it made more sense to procrastinate on this blog than on my schoolwork.

That said, here's a short and sweet set of posts to music I meant to post throughout 2007. May they make yr summer 2008 merry:

1) Spoon -- The Underdog (Demo)
Spoon's Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga came out in summer '07 and became my number one jam of the sunny season. Ga... is their most accomplished album, managing to sound terse and tense, but replacing the minimalism of earlier LP's with a new lushness. This demo version of lead single "The Underdog" comes from a limited 7" that came with the album if you bought it at an independent record store. Which I did.

2) Spoon -- It Took A Rumor To Make Me Wonder, Now I'm Convinced I'm Going Under
The B-side to aforementioned 7". This is a quirky little electro-disco-dub workout.

3) Radiohead -- The Gloaming (DJ Shadow Remix)
Remember the Bush era? When nobody could so much as question anything without being labeled Al-Q-whatever? Well, back then Radiohead set the standard for political rock -- namely, they (and TV On The Radio, who had some politically charged moments on "Return to Cookie Mountain") expressed our sense of frustration and powerlessness. Too bad they couldn't transcend it with their music and offer reasons to take action, get informed, or at least stay hopeful. Well, whatever, here's a track from Hail to the Thief, remixed by DJ Shadow and released as a limited vinyl single. Couldn't find a cleaner version than this rip from the radio, but the graininess kind of lends some grit. P.S. these electronic squiggles, blips, and clangs really jarred listeners who expected downtempo instrumental hip-hop from DJ Shadow.

4) Jaylib -- The Message
Ok, I lied. The other soundtrack to my Endless Summer '07 was the reissue of Jaylib's Champion Sound. Jaylib = J Dilla + Madlib, two of my fav producers. The album is comprised of nasty lo-fi hip-hop, with lots of vinyl noise, static, and rhythmic disjunctions. "The Message" is not one of the album's tracks, instead coming from a white label released by Stones Throw. It refers obliquely to an early Grandmaster Flash + The Furious Five single.

5) Child Rebel Soldiers aka Kanye West + Pharrell Williams + Lupe Fiasco -- US Placers
Oh geez. There have been super-vague rumors of an album-length collaboration between these three giants under the name Child Rebel Soldiers. This track comes from one of Kanye's mixtapes and contains a beat that rips from Thom Yorke's solo album The Eraser. So in the year that brought us In Rainbows, we also got our first Radiohead-hip-hop-crossover.

RIGHT CLICK + SAVE AS + ENJOY!

J Dilla + Madlib = Jaylib. This track does NOT appear on "Champion Sound", Jaylib's only full length album. I believe it comes from a white label vinyl instead.

From the album, "Liberation", a collaboration that was posted in its entirety for free on the Stones Throw Records website for a limited time.

Hey hey hey folks! Things have been quiet here at the Audiozine for a while now due to exams and the holiday season. So it's time to start off 2007 the right way, with lots of great stuff for yr listening enjoyment. Click the links below to download these songs.

1) Miles Davis - A Night in Tunisia and Stablemates

I recently snagged an out-of-print vinyl double LP by Miles Davis called "Green Haze". It's from fairly early in his career, well before he was considered a living legend. Most of the songs are jazz standards being played in Miles's elliptical cool jazz style of the time. "Stablemates" features a young John Coltrane on saxophone.

2) Ghostface Killah - Charlie Brown

Ghostface had a great 2006 with the release of his "Fishscale" and "More Fish" discs (even if the sales didn't match the critical response). "Charlie Brown" is an outtake from Ghost's recent albums; it didn't make the cut due to sample clearance issues, but it was leaked to various mp3 blogs. The beat is produced by MF Doom and liberally samples a tropicalia era song by Caetano Veloso.

3) Nas - Where Y'all At

This track was leaked to Prefix months before Nas's "Hip-Hop is Dead" was released. However, the track didn't make the final cut. Peep the hazy beat, in which upright bass keeps time while the drums play in a more suggestive, dubby style.

4) Talib Kweli and Madlib - Funny Money

Kweli and Madlib's collabo album, "Liberation", was available as a free download last week on the Stones Throw Records website. They have since taken it down. Here's my favorite track.

5) Finally, there's been a big buzz about a recently unearthed acetate featuring alternate takes and mixes from the Velvet Underground and Nico sessions. It may be the only surviving copy of these takes and it was found at some random record sale for 75 cents! The good folks at FM Shades have posted all of the songs here. Get it while it lasts!