Google+ Beathearts: 10.2012

10.30.2012

Premier of Waajeed's Dirt Tech Reck on BBC Radio 1 with Benji B


This thursday Detroit mastermind Waajeed stopped by Radio 1 and Benji B's studio with a lot of new and exclusive stuff. A fantastic show that we've been looping for two days now. Amazing music from Jeedo's three (!) new projects that's going to be released on his new label Dirt Tech Reck. The first is Electric Street Orchestra, which is Waajeed new production project which features some cool guests on vocals and guest-production that's been in the works for some time now. The second is called Jeedeci, Jeedo's ode to r'n'b and Jodeci with a raw Detroit touch on it. In Jeedo's words "are meant to fornicate to...". Haha! And finally the Tiny Hearts band which is together with LA musicians Tim Kvasnosky and Deanne "Dede" Reynolds. There's a lot of funny stories and of course ill beats all the way through the show! Music on the show features collaborations with "Mad" Mike Banks of Underground Resistance, Theo Parrish, Dede, Andrés and more.

We especially dig the tracks 'Natives' and 'Deconstruct' as well as the Jeedeci project! Straight up fire!


The show is available for stream and free download right now on Waajeed's soundcloud so get it while it's available! Don't sleep on this!



Tracklist:

Jeedo — The Doo Wops
Bling47
Waajeed — Tron
Bling47
Jeedo — Make It Boom
Dirt Tech Reck
Waajeed — The Event
Bling47
Electric Street Orchestra — Scorpio
Dirty Tech Reck
Electric Street Orchestra — MFA (feat. Theo Parrish, Andres & Duminie)
Dirt Tech Reck
Electric Street Orchestra — The Natives
Dirt Tech Reck
Jeedo — I Will See You
Bling47
Electric Street Orchestra — Reconstruct
Dirt Tech Reck
Jeedeci — Cry 4 U Melody
Dirt Tech Reck
Jeedeci — Cry 4 U
Dirt Tech Reck
Jeedeci — Freekin U
Dirt Tech Reck
Jeedeci — Love U 4 Life
Dirt Tech Reck
Jeedo — Poppa Smurf (Instrumental)
Dirt Tech Reck
Tiny Hearts — Dark Eyes
Dirt Tech Reck
Tiny Hearts — Centrefold
Dirt Tech Reck
Waajeed — The Odds
Bling47
Tiny Hearts — Monsters
Dirt Tech Reck
Jeedo — Hood Tech
Dirt Tech Reck
Jeedo — BUCK!
Dirt Tech Reck
Jeedo — Mirrors (Refix)
Dirt Tech Reck
Jeedo — Trainers
Dirt Tech Reck
Jeedo — Need You Bad
Dirt Tech Reck
Jeedo — Blax On Blacks
Dirt Tech Reck


Jeedeci - Love U 4 life (Dirt Tech Reck 2013)

10.29.2012

The Beat Generation Series #5: Roman Lee Norfleet (US)



In our quest to discover new soulful underground music we come across many up and coming producers from all around the world. We thought is was about time to put the spotlight on a few of them that we think are about to blow up. We call it The Beat Generation Series.

THE BEAT GENERATION SERIES: ROMAN LEE NORFLEET (US)

Roman Lee Norfleet is a producer, songwriter, beatmaker and graphic designer. Born and raised in the Chicago area now about to move out to L.A. As a duo with Jaque Hammond he has put out several projects under the Martin Parks moniker. What first caught our attention was his unique organic sound and bad ass cover art that left us craving for more.


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Name: Roman Lee Norfleet
Age: 23
Origin: 815, Illinois (Greater Chicago)

You’re a soloartist, producer and a duo together with Jaque Hammond under the name Martin Parks. Is there a difference of musical direction depending of which constellation you work in?

I would say my music is more RAW, more gritty, however I do plan on bringing some of that rawness to some future MP projects. When I make a beat for MP, I imagine us on the song throughout the whole process, but when I make a beat for me, it personal to ME.

Tell us the story behind the name Martin Parks and what it means to you?

Martin Parks is an idea, its a movement. Anyone could be apart of Martin Parks in a sense. MARTIN comes from Dr. King Jr. and PARKS stems from Rosa Parks, two revolutionaries who weren't afraid to fight for freedom. They didn't just sit back and let the cruel world pass them by, they didn't just accept all the hate, they made CHANGE. Thats what we want to do with our music. Now I'm not saying I'm out here rapin' King's speeches or elaborating on all his beliefs on a song. I still do me. I rap from where I know and personal experience. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks are just two of the many world changers we chose to represent the idea of our movement.


We first discovered you when up-and-coming vocalist Rob Milton sent us his first EP. How did you hook up with him? 

I actually met Rob through Jacque. They once sang in the Virginia State Choir.

[Rob Milton gave us more details back in January when The Love Today EP dropped:]

I met Jacque in my sophomore year of college. Then she moved away and came back a year later with Roman and started pushing the Martin Parks movement. I wrote a piece on them for Examiner.com over the summer. A little while later, I got a call about helping Jacque with her solo project, which releases sometime this month. Anyway, from there we put together my EP before I graduated this past December. 


Download: Rob Milton - The Love Today EP

How did you get started as a producer?

By wanting to be a rapper haha! No one in my town that I knew of made beats that had that raw soul. I was looking for and the few I knew in Chicago were trying to charge me a arm and a head. I was on unemployment with no ends haha!

If it weren't for my father who believed in my first dream of being a graphic designer and photographer I would have never found (Apple's) Garage Band! He spent the last he had saved for me on a MacBookPro and after I dropped out of college I promised myself I wouldn't let that money go to waste. I've been working to retire my old man every since.

What does the creative process behind a new Roman Lee/MartinParks track/remix look like? 

It looks very creative….haha! I'm working on quitting smoking fam!!! But after I cook up some beats I call Jacque in the studio and we TURN IT UP! Our ideas ALWAYS seem to mesh perfectly!

Who were your musical heroes when growing up?

Well I wasn't really allowed to listen to any secular music growing up. The only music I could turn to was smooth jazz and gospel. One of my favorite gospel tunes is Stand by John P. Kee.

John P. Kee - Stand (1996)

I was in high school then. father was a preacher and my mom was very God fearing as well, however their work schedules forced me to spend majority of my days in the projects at my sisters house, and that was all hiphop! Later down the line I discovered artist like Common, Lupe, and Kanye from hanging out in Chicago so much. And THEN I heard Waves from Dillas Donuts album... That was one of the first songs that really made me do my Dilla research. That moment I knew what I was put here for!


J Dilla - Waves (2006)

You’ve got such a unique organic sound. One of the first track we heard that got us hooked was Inspiration off Thankful For Sound (TFS). Could you tell us how that project came about? How did you come up with that sound?

Before we made TFS we had hella people trying to tell us what type of music we should make and what type of sound we should have. I feel that TFS went the total opposite direction of what people wanted and what we had previously released. I believe that TFS helped us discover OUR sound or at least a portion of it. We wanted to bring the soul and samples of hip hop without it being so plain. A lot of those beats on that project I made a year before we released it. It took us almost a year to release it after scrapping to other ideas!


Download: Martin Parks - Thankful for sound

What are your inspirations today? Could you drop three albums or tunes that have recently blown your mind? Any up-and-coming producers?

To be honest most of the music I listen to daily doesn't go past 98', I'm just not 100% feeling hiphop as a whole right now.

1. Georgia Anne Muldrow - Seeds.
2. Robert Glasper - Black Radio.
3. Kim Burell - The Love Album.

Georgia Anne Muldrow - Seeds (2012)

Robert Glasper - Dillalude #2 (2012)


Kim Burell - The Love Album (2011)

Any dream collaborations?

Don't really have any DREAM collabs, but I would def hop on a track with DOOM!

Another release that stunned us was the current project The Green Whale. Could you tell us how that album came about?

I wanted to bring back that raw imagination and creation I had when I was a child. I often created my own books which consisted of stapled loose leaf paper, and monsters I drew myself. Sometimes I would write story's in my books and sometimes I would just make monster catalogs. Blue whales are my favorite animal, they help us humans realize how small we are and a blue whale compared to the universe is even smaller and in this ego driven world we live in, we need that reality. but I wanted to create my own species of whales that reflected my character and with the help of Amanda Berglund I was able to create the first green whale, Nug. The entire project walks through life lessons and stories from the year 2009 to 2012. I did a lot of growing and creating during this time especially being out on my own. The Green Whale is a musical version of those loose leaf stapled books I used to create, each song being its own character, page and story.



Our takeaway tracks off The Green Whale are Perfect and Recognize (A5 mix). Could you tell us the story behind those two tracks? 

Perfect and Recognize were meant to reach out to anyone whose ever struggled with self identity, insecurity and just feeling alone and lost in the world. I've dealt with all those insecurites and sometimes may still struggle but I've found ways make it through! So it's only right to reach out to my fellow man, help uplift and to be able to identify.


Download: Roman Lee Norfleet - The Green Whale

What is your dearest piece of equipment and why?

My record player! It's where all my vinyl come to life!

The last couple of years crews like The Robert Glasper Experiment, BadBadNotGood, El Michel's Affair and Will sessions have literally blown up with their live sessions. Is there a Martin Parks live experience? 

We do shows here and there, but right now we're trying to push ourselves to our creative limits and really master our craft. We're moving to LA this month so you'll see more of us!

To sum things up, what can we expect from the Roman Lee/Martin Parks studios in 2012?

We just finished and 3 song EP with DJ/Producer 5ifth Element from Chicago. We've also making a big change to Martin Parks. [The new EP is entitled] Concluding Passages of a Revolution so look out for that.

As a final lil' nugget here's a Beathearts exclusive. It's the instrumental for LTII taken from Rob Milton's Love Today EP produced by Roman.


Download: Rob Milton - LTII (Instrumental)

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That's it for this edition of the Beat Generation Series. We're really looking forward to Roman's upcoming projects and are sure you'll hear from him soon again!

http://martinparks.bandcamp.com/
https://twitter.com/RLNorfleet

10.26.2012

Jeremih Ft Marcus Fench – Keep It Moving

I'm such a sucker for new tunes revisiting 90's hiphop classics. Latest example is Jeremih's mixtape Late Night. On the track Keep it moving goes back to A Tribe Called Quest's Electric Relaxation (1994) who in turn used Ronnie Foster's classic Mystic Brew (1972). Great interpretation - get it below!


Download: Jeremih - Keep it moving
Download: Jeremih - Late night mixtape


            
             ATCQ - Electric Relaxation (1994)                   Ronnie Foster - Mystic Brew (1972) 

Mark de Clive-Lowe - Get Started ft Omar (Full Crate Remix)

We just can't get enough of Mark de Clive-Lowe this week can we? Here's Dutch producer Full Crate's dubby deep house version of Get started featuring Omar to get the weekend started. Free download courtesy of the good people over at Tru Thoughts. Get it while you can.

If you want more of the Full Crate sounds head over to 22Tracks.com where he and FS Green pull our their favourite tracks each month.


Download: Mark de Clive-Lowe - Get started (Full Crate remix)

Billy Cobham - Heather (Variations)

Billy Cobham - Heather (1974)

Woke up this morning with this great rework from German producer Hannes Fischer in our RSS-flow. He has taken on Souls of Mischief's classic 93 'til infinity and reconstructed it into something completely different. It still has the vibe from Billy Cobham's original Heather (1974) but now reconstructed as a slow building minimal track.

Apparently Souls of Mischief are putting together a documentary about the album coming up early next year to celebrate celebrate it's 20th (!) anniversary. Check the preview here.

Heather is taken from jazzdrummer Billy Cobham's third album Crosswinds released in 1974. It's no surprise that, like so many other classics, it was recorded at Electric Lady studios in New York. Cobham is still live and kickin' and has an upcoming mini-tour of the US and the Netherlands. Go check him out!

Heads up to the MIMS-crew for putting us onto Hannes Fischer's version.


Download: Souls of Mischief - 93 'til infinity (Hannes Fischer rework)

Souls of Mischief - 93 'til infinity (1993)

Lewis Taylor – Bittersweet (Mr Leigh's A Dash Of Sugar Edit)

What a great week! Here's another dope re-edit. It's Lewis Taylor's track Bittersweet (1996) cut up by a Mr Leigh based in Melbourne. It also features on Gilles Peterson's new mixtape for TimeOutNewYork (unfortunately no download). Check them both below.


Download: Lewis Taylor - Bittersweet (Mr Leigh's a dash of sugar edit)

10.25.2012

Mark de Clive-Lowe presents Church vol.5

Another great edition of Mark de Clive-Lowe's Church mixtapes was just released. This time it's Nia Andrews on the 1's and 2's. It also happened to be the pre-ceremonial-lounge playlist at their recent wedding (!). Awsome couple. Awsome soundtrack. All the best from the Beathearts crew!

Download: Church Vol.5

Tracklist:

1.Unknown
2.Astral Traveling By Pharoah Sanders
3.Unknown
4.Island LatterBuy By Shuggie Otis
5.Unknown
6.Heaven Must Be Like This (album version) by Ohio Players
7.Unknown
8.A La NitBuy by Savath & Savalas
9.Inside My Love by Minnie Riperton
10.Intimate Friends by Eddie Kendricks
11.Holding You Loving You by Don Blackman
12.Africa by D Angelo

KENDRICK LAMAR - GOOD KID, M.A.A.D. CITY – THE SAMPLES COLLECTION

With Kendrick Lamar's new album blowing up Babylon Cartel‘s Gianni Lee and Mike Blud put together this compilation of the tunes behind the tunes. I.e. they've collected some of the smoothest sample sources off the album into this slick compilation. We especially enjoyed the fact that they used a track from Beathearts favourites Boom Clap Bachelors.

Get it while it's still available:

Download: GOOD KID, M.A.A.D. CITY – The samples collection


Tracklisting:
1.Prologue
2. Dreamscape Interlude (Prod. By Gianni Lee)
3. Boom Clap Bachelors – Tiden Flyer (Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe)
4. Suspekt – Helt Alene (Art Of Peer Pressure)
5. Beach House – Silver Soul (Money Trees)
6. Janet Jackson – Anytime, Anyplace (Poetic Justice)
7. Kanye West – We Major (M.A.A.D City)
8. Ohio Players – Funky Worm (M.A.A.D City)
9. Grant Green – Maybe Tomorrow (Sing About Me, Dying Of Thirst)
10. Formula IV – Whats This World Coming To (Compton)
11. Kool And The Gang – Summer Madness (Compton)
12. Twin Sister – Meet The Frownies (The Recipe)


10.20.2012

Album of the month: S3 - Supa Soul Sh*t


Ever since we got Miles Bonny's seminal track Still Miles with DJ Day back in 2009 he's been on our radar. Numerous EPs, collaborations and albums later his sense of quality is second to none.

For his latest album Supa Soul Sh*t he's teamed up with Austrian beatmaestro Branko Jordanovic a.k.a. Brenk Sinatra under the S3 moniker.

The album is 21 tracks thick and has potential to become a future classic. The smooth production and soulful skits somehow reminds me of Slum Village's Fantastic Vol.1. It has been in the making for three years with Brenk on the breaks and Miles on vocals and his signature flugelhorn (as in the photo above).

Of course there are tracks that stick out like 10 minutes and Rain don't stop me now but Supa Soul Sh*t is something as rare as an album that works as an album as opposed to just a collection of tracks.

Tracklist:

1. S3 Intro 00:10
2. Seein Doe 02:30
3. Chakal 04:49
4. Get This Money 03:44
5. Bro Skit 01:10
6. Don´t Stop 03:57
7. Deeper Skit 00:56
8. Sprinkle 04:27
9. Chronic Break 01:13
10. Dr. Strange 03:50
11. All I Know 04:20
12. Make Her Smile 00:50
13. 10 Minutes 03:37
14. Hanged Skit 01:30
15. Let It Rain 03:46
16. Rain Don't Stop Me Now 03:27
17. Lystics 03:43
18. Really 02:01
19. Stars Shine 04:04
20. Time Out Skit 02:53
21. Movin On 05:20

S3 is currently on tour in Germany and Poland going back to Miles Polish roots. Miles grandfather was born in Poland, deported to Siberia and later fled to the US where he changed name from Bonikowski to Bonny (hence Miles Bonny).

S3's Supa Soul Sh*t is available for digital download right now via Bandcamp. The vinyl release is dropping on October 26th via Melting Pot Music.


Download: S3 - Rain don't stop me now


Download: S3 - Don't stop

Want more? Get digging in Miles Bonny back catalogue on Bandcamp

10.18.2012

Hiatus Kaiyote - Tawk Takeout

Melbourne based collective Hiatus Kaiyote are on a roll and getting hype from across the board. From Gilles Peterson naming their debut Tawk Tomahawk Album of the week to Erykah Badu's recent tweet that sums it all up nicely: "OK. I'm done. In love."

To top that off, legendary magazine WaxPoetics just dropped a remix album as a special feature. With next shit remixes from artists like Mark de Clive-Lowe, Shafiq Husayn, Anthony Valadez and the omnipresent Miles Bonny. As if that wasn't enough it's a free download. Get it while it's available!

Download: Hiatus Kaiyote - Tawk Takeout

Beathearts Rewind #49: Luther Vandross & Aretha Franklin - Jump to it (1981)

Was listening to this old interview with the late Luther Vandross yesterday and found out that he actually produced Aretha Franklin's classic albums Jump to it (1982) and Get it right (1983). Maybe you already knew but Luther's productions skills was at least news to me.

Apparently the story was this:

Luther was discovered by accident during David Bowie's recording session of Young Americans at Sigma Sound studios in Philadelphia. Luther felt the song needed a better hook and started humming along. Bowie overheard it and hired him on the spot.

A few years later, Vandross was established background singer for Roberta Flack and others. He had been saving up money for a studio demo. He convinced producers, background singers and musicians to help him for free. On a Sunday early 1981 he got in the Media Sound Studio and recorded his first demo Never too much/Sugar & spice. The day after he asked Roberta if she wanted a first listen. She was amazed, lovingly fired him (!) and helped him get a record deal.

In a Rolling Stone interview later that year he was asked about his future plans and answered that he "would wrestle [wrestling champion] Bruno Sammartino for a chance to produce Aretha Franklin". During a Saturday Night Live session Vandross and bass player Marcus Miller wrote Jump to it on a piano standing in a hallway. They sent her the demo and the rest is history.

Many thanks to legend Mats Nileskär for the great story.


Aretha Franklin - Jump to it (1982) - Prince Klassed re-edit

10.14.2012

Mark de Clive-Lowe - Remix:Live

With the amazing amount of music that hit us each week, every now and then a clip or a tune hits us that just makes us sit back in awe. If you're a regular you know we huge fans of Mark de Clive-Lowe. We had the honor of interviewing him earlier this year - if you missed that check it here: The Beathearts Mark de Clive-Lowe sitdown.

On top if being an amazingly productive recording artist, producer and remixer he's got an extensive live tour schedule on top of his Church residencies in L.A. and New York. One of the many live projects he's got going is the Remix:Live set-up where remixes some of his favourite tunes live using Native Instruments Maschine, two Korg KP3 Kaoss Pads, a USB controller keyboard and a Roland Juno G. The result is nothing but stunning. Check the clip above of the man remixing Elements of Life classic track Brand New Day and you'll know what we mean.

You want more? Here's a free DL of another track Mark has remixed live:

Listen to the complete set right here:

Mark de Clive-Lowe - Remix:Live (South Africa - Sept 2012)

10.12.2012

Friday Night Slowjams

Friday night and we kick back to new material from Flying Lotus, St. Joe Louis and Ty (of the excellent Ty & Kory mixtape fame). We've had these two tracks on rotation for some time and both of them are growers.

First off is the upcoming single, Night blooming jasmine, from St. Joe Louis and Flying Lotus project Lotus Reloaded Redux. Somewhat reminiscent of Dudley Perkins finest moments this tune will have you humming "Flowers ain't gon work" for sure.

Download: Flying Lotus & Joe St. Louis - Night blooming jasmine

Second track is our take-away track from Ty's latest drop Beach House. Most of the release is produced by D.R.U.G.$. but this track Time was put togehter by D-Mile and Ty himself. Smooth late night listening in the vein of Frank Ocean. Check it.


Download: Ty - Time ft Joe Moses

10.09.2012

Robert Glasper Experiment - Dillalude #2

For all of you that have enjoyed Robet Glasper Experiment live these last couple of years here's a nugget we know you've been waiting for. The first Dillalude came out on Glasper's 2007 album In my element and ever since he's been blessing us with new versions in his live shows and via exclusive clips on Benji B's former show Deviation on BBC 1xtra (featured here).

This time Robert finally decided to bring the live experience into the studio and put together some of their finest live Dillaludes on tape. Kickin' off with Dilla's E=MC2 and ending with Bobby Caldwell's Open your eyes this is the highlight of any playlist.

Line-up:
Robert Glasper: Keys, Rhodes
Chris Dave: Drums
Derrick Hodge: Bass
Casey Benjamin: Vocals/Vocoder

Dillalude #2 is out now on the remix EP - Black Radio Recovered on Blue Note.

For more Glasper insights check our interview with Robert Glasper and Chris Dave right here.

10.03.2012

MonkeyRobot - The Bastard Jazz EP


Just got word that Louis and Eric from MonkeyRobot are about to release their first EP on Brooklyn's finest imprint Bastard Jazz. There will be four tracks and here's a first taster - an uptempo dubby roller entitled YBMJ. YBMJ as in Anita Baker's classic You Bring Me Joy (1986).

The so far untitled EP will drop around November 10th. Watch this space!



As a bonus here's MonkeyRobot's dope remix of Robert Glasper's Move Love from earlier this year.


For more insights to MonkeyRobot's inspiration and music making check out our interview with them in our Beat Generation Series #4

10.02.2012

Emma Shaheen - Sun will shine (Tall Black Guy remix)

What a year it has been for Tall Black Guy. Here's another smooth remake from the man. This time Terrel has hooked up with Leeds based singer Emma Shaheen for her first studio produced EP - Heart Cries. Get it below.

Download: Emma Shaheen - Sun will shine (Tall Black Guy remix)

10.01.2012

Terry Tester - The Dunkel Radio Mixtape

Cold rainy dark Monday. What better way to ease up your day than with this kick-ass mixtape from Danish producer Terry Tester. In a time when a mixtape can be anything from a loose collections of song not good enough for album release with the DJ screaming his name instead of beatmixing the tunes, this MIXTAPE is such a relief.

In my world there are three criterion for a great mixtape:
1. Great selection of tunes that work together
2. Great beatmix and/or scratching
3. The guts to mix new tunes with older gems

Terry aces all these and show of his influences and great taste in music by seamlessly fusing everything from hiphop to Detroit house to UK street soul. Terry, fantastic job. We salute you! Get it below before it's gone.

Download: Terry Tester - The Dunkel Radio mixtape

Want to know more about Terry Tester read our earlier feature of Terry as part 3 of our Beat Generation series right here.

Tracklist:
1 - Grap Luva: Keywaves
2 - Twelve Beats: Just For You (unreleased)
3 - Terry Tester / Wu-Tang Clan: Steady / C.R.E.A.M (unreleased)
4 - J. Dilla: The Best That Ever Did It
5 - Quelle: Special Ingredient
6 - Wu-Tang Clan: As High As Wu-Tang Get
7 - Madlib: Beatconductor in Africa
8 - Brand Nubian: One For All
9 - Buscrates 16-bit Ensemble: Dirty Certron C60 (unreleased)
10 - B. Bravo / Jams F. Kennedy: Jams F. Kennedy
11 - Terry Tester: Clean Up Your Act (unreleased)
12 - Terry Tester: Beyonce Doesn't Care About Black People (unreleased)
13 - George Duke: Nigerian Numberuma
14 - Marcellus Pittman: Razz 09
15 - NY House'n Authority: Apt. 3A
16 - DVA: Reach The Sun
17 - Ultra Nate: Love's The Only Drug (Remix)
18 - Ray Manzarek: Solar Boat
19 - Maze: Twilight
20 - Loose Ends: Hangin' On A String
21 - Nicci: So In Love