Armand Van Helden - Sampleslaya - Enter The Meatmarket (1997) (FLAC/320)

"Enter The Meatmarket" was released in 1997 as the second album from the House producer Armand Van Helden. The New Yorker went for something with a heavier Hip Hop feel than the last in order to push for a sound which was found in his first record, but wasn't as prominent as he was going for a project with an Old School House-inspired sound. It's known for its extensive sampling of classic Hip Hop (which at the time was yet to receive such attention and praise).

1. "Push'em Up" The album is set off in a big way as we're drawn right into the record with a straight-up Hip Hop track done in the contemporary East Coast style. It features a sample of Bob James "Take Me To The Mardi Gras" and draws people in from the very moment it gets underway as we find just how well the producer is able to manipulate this, a cut from Wu-Tang Clan and also Onyx's "Slam" altogether without confusion.
2. "Hot Butter" This track works from a vocal snippet from Q-Tip running through the track. I felt that it was a very strong backing to the tune and it takes the listeners in before a number of other things are piled into it (including stuff from Gang Starr, Eric B. & Rakim and James Brown) in order to show just how far he's going. Van Helden shows his musical knowledge and just how well he's able to mash together a number of clips to make even better results.

3. "We Came To Party"

4. "Blackpeoplez" 

The Rugged All-Stars help out on the beats for this one and it seems that they know exactly what the producer's looking for with this release as he takes us further down the Wu-Tang route in order to give things a very gritty feel and one which will appeal direct towards those who are much more into their underground material than what they are with more commercial Hip Hop from around this time.
5. "Daaboodaa Munks" 

The title of this one is jacked directly from Nas's "It Ain't Hard To Tell". Taking people right back to the artist's debut album (although he was only two albums deep by this point) is a great way to take things as its likely to cause quite a reaction and it makes for a fierce sound that few others would have been able to compete with at the time makes this for another quality track that you shouldn't miss out on.
6. "Crooklyn Anthem" DJ Sizzahandz helps out for this one and I thought that he did well to give things a heavy Old School feel to it as he draws people's attention right back to the early eighties Hip Hop sound when it was all about the party Rap where everything was all about having fun and there was little more to it. This one has a lot of energy and is bound to excite many in what it does as they keep this Turntablist work flowing on.
7. "Ultrafunkula" We suddenly get a massive change to the direction of the music here as this one opens up as a funky, Disco-House track. I thought that it was a very nice mix as together with this, he draws a snippet from the Lords of the Underground's "Chief Rocka" and keeps things rolling on in the direction heard mostly with his 1994 debut. The track is heavy, but I fear it may become annoy to some.
8. "Hood Movie Stars" This track takes the opening two lines of Nas's "Escobar '97" and simply loops it over and over again. I thought that it was a killer break and one that you couldn't really mess with in spite of its simplicity and how the beatmaker simply throws down any old Hip Hop beat over the back of it to prop it up. I thought that it was amongst the best that the record had to offer and stood out significantly amongst what's found on the album.
9. "Word Up Doc" With this track we find that Armand Van Helden wishes to take things a bit further back in time and so he feels it necessary to go back to the likes of The Fat Boys, The Sugarhill Gang and Dana Dane in order to do this. What the producer does here is great as he takes from more commercially-friendly Hip Hop cuts from back in the day and brings them up in a throwback setting. There's even room for "Hey DJ" to top it all off for a great mash-up of Old School hits.

10. "Pulling G-Spots"

11. "Puerto Rican Handclap"

12. "Out Of The Frame"

13. "This Is It!" This cut has him kicking more heavy material that Hip Hop fans are bound to be excited by. Things are changed a little as here things take a bit of a funkier turn than usual, but I felt that it really added to the thing and made for another piece that enabled listeners to do more dance moves than the rest had permitted (where the 'East Coast Stomp' was all that was possible with the rest. It's set off by a little Slick Rick before it gets freaky and is one to look out for.
10. "Out of Frame" I found that it was a little strange to see things move on towards this kind of thing after what we were given on the last one. Here they really change things up quite a bit by going out with a much colder, Gangsta Rap feel than is heard elsewhere. I thought that although this one carried many ominous connotations with it, the juxtaposition of this one with this last made it much more impactful to hear.
14. "Reservoir Dogs" This one takes on Method Man & Redman's "How High" in addition to Run-D.M.C.'s "Beats to the Rhyme" and I felt that it made for an intense mix of contrasting time periods in Hip Hop history 9the former being the current day style of that time) but regardless of this, when listening to it now it sounds like a great mix of differing times which have gone by in a manner which seems to come together effortlessly.
15. "6 Minutes of Funk" Funk Master Flex gets up over this track and shows support for Armand Van Helden in doing so. Together they do well to do a track which sounds to be well in-line with what was going on in Hip Hop at the time with Puff Daddy's "It's All About The Benjamins" being the main sample being used here and together with this a "...and ya don't stop" vocal cut just seems to top it all off and make it a heavy piece you wouldn't want to be without.
16. "Bounce" This is a hyped-up joint and one bound to get people excited as it takes on the same snippet that A Tribe Called Quest used, as was later taken on for The Fugees "Killing My Softly" - which is why the producer's using it himself here to show just how effect that little funky cut is and just how well it's able to transform a recording with good placing. It's a nice compromise track from him here with a few styles mashed together.

17. "Hey Yah Heh" Begins with a little clip taken from early on in the Hip Hop film 'Beat Street' and it sets the thing off nicely before we get into the flow of the album and are able to feel what else Armand Van Helden's got to give the people this time around. This one really thumps away in a raw way and gets people moving in the same grimy way as been felt pretty much through the rest of the thing, and is supported by a suitable KRS-One sound effect.

18, "Ballistic Funk"

____________________________________I thought that this was a great album from Armand Van Helden and one that I'd hope more Hip Hop fans to be aware of as it's a great piece documenting what exactly it was like to be a fan of that type of music through the mid to late nineties (in spite of the album coming out in 1997). It has a lot of energy to it and shows how he's able to pull off a straight Hip Hop release just as well as the House material. Source review

FLAC // 320

Arthur Baker - Breakin' (2001) (FLAC)

1.01            Arthur Baker vs. Utah Saints – The Illuminous 4:53
1.02            Arthur Baker vs. DJ Face – Jamaica, C'mon Featuring Top Cat 5:39
1.03            Arthur Baker vs. Lee Coombs & Drumattic Twins – Microphone Style 5:17
1.04            Criminal Element Orchestra vs. Lee Coombs – Put The Needle To The Record 4:04
1.05            Arthur Baker – Do It Like This!!! Featuring – DJ Plus One 4:33
1.06            Arthur Baker & Meat Katie vs. Rockers Revenge – Walking On Sunshine Vs Sky's The Limit 4:59
1.07            Arthur Baker vs. Drumattic Twins – The Anthem 4:19
1.08            Arthur Baker vs. 20:20 Vision – Different Styles 3:46
1.09            The Crazies - Arthur Baker vs. Felix Da Housecat – Quiet Riot 6:42
1.10            Arthur Baker vs. Rennie Pilgrem – Face It 4:23
1.11            AB/DC – The Feelin' 6:20
1.12            Arthur Baker vs. Tina B – Si Mia Vita 4:10
1.13            Arthur Baker vs. Timo Maas – Der Schieber (AB Rock The Bass Mix) 4:18
1.14            Arthur Baker vs. Dee-Kline – Buttercup (Vocals Nicole) 4:21
1.15            Arthur Baker – Rockin' The Beads 4:33
1.16            Paul Oakenfold presents Afrika Bambaataa & Soulsonic Force – Planet Rock (Swordfish Mix) 5:26

2.01            New Order – Confusion 8:02
2.02            Afrika Bambaataa & Soulsonic Force – Looking For The Perfect Beat 6:56
2.03            Rockers Revenge – Walking On Sunshine 9:16
2.04            Cuba Gooding – Happiness Is Just Around The Bend 6:58
2.05            Will Downing – A Love Supreme (Arthur's Jazz House Mix) 5:51
2.06            The Incredible Mr. Freeze – Back To The Scene Of The Crime 6:16
2.07            Criminal Element Orchestra – Put The Needle To The Record 7:12
2.08            Fleetwood Mac – Big Love (House Upon The Hill Mix) (Remix – Arthur Baker) 6:20
2.09            Arthur Baker – Breaker's Revenge 7:16
2.10            Planet Patrol – Play At Your Own Risk 7:21
2.11            Afrika Bambaataa & Soulsonic Force – Planet Rock 6:22

CD1

CD2

Electro and hip-hop pioneer Arthur Baker's productions in the '90s exerted nowhere near the influence they did during the previous decade. That said, Breakin' is probably the closest thing to a proper anthology of Baker's earlier works on the market -- which is quite surprising, given the prolific string of groundbreaking hits Baker produced for various artists during that period of time. It also makes this record somewhat of a befuddlement. The only drawback to Breakin' is that it's a two-disc affair, and the first half is definitely something that hinders the potency of this release. Consisting of remixes and collaborations that are uptempo numbers bordering on progressive house, the songs are simply average at best, with absolutely no trace of the innovative nature or creative ambition Baker once so brilliantly displayed. But while the first CD consists of predominately new productions, the second CD is where the true gold and watershed moments of Baker's career are compiled. Starting off with the painfully brilliant remix of New Order's "Confusion," the disc moves at a breakneck pace through some of the most brilliant moments of hip-hop and electro. His productions of "Looking for the Perfect Beat" and several others sound just as fresh now as when they were debuted on the dancefloors around the world. Capping out the second disc with the anthem "Planet Rock" leaves you with a feeling of elation that one man could produce this many hits and so many more, but then also a feeling of bewilderment --
as to what exactly happened from then until now.
Enjoy the second disc, but leave the first one in the case.
Allmusic Review

A Guy Called Gerald - Essence (WAV)

1. The Universe

2. The First Breath

3. Humanity

4. Multiplies

5. Fever (Or A Flame)

6. Could You Understand

7. Alien Report

8. Glow

9. Beaches & Deserts

10. Final Call

11. I Make It

12. Universal Spirit

13. Hurry To Go Easy

14. Scalecircle

15. Landed

WAV

Soul II Soul - Vol. II (1990 - A New Decade) (1990) (WAV)

1 Get A Life
Vocals – Daddae Harvey, Jazzie B., Marcia Lewis 3:42
2 Love Come Through
Vocals – Lamya 4:30
3 People
Vocals – Marcia Lewis 4:55
4 Missing You
Vocals – Kym Mazelle 5:24
5 Courtney Blows
Saxophone – Courtney Pine 4:33
6 1990 - A New Decade
Vocals – Bambi Fazakerley, Nomsa Caluza, Pinise Saul, Sonti Nmdebele 4:01
7 A Dream's A Dream
Vocals – Victoria Wilson-James 5:37
8 Time (Untitled) 6:05
9 In The Heat Of The Night
Vocals – Lamya 3:39
10 Our Time Has Now Come
Vocals – Bambi Fazakerley, Fab 5 Freddy, Jazzie B, Nomsa Caluza, Pinise Saul, Sonti Nmdebele 3:57

WAV

Coldcut - Sound Mirrors (2006)

What's a duo to do after pioneering cut 'n paste remixes, independent record label direction, VJ-software design, and political art activity? For the progressive production/DJ group Coldcut, writing and recording another album seems an underwhelming and almost regressive response. Nevertheless, Jonathan More and Matt Black re-enter the "traditional" recording arena nearly seven years after their last full-length release with Sound Mirrors. A characteristic journey through popular music's myriad conceptions of the beat, the album is a sensible addition to the group's far-reaching oeuvre. However, in the past the group's trademark collage aesthetic meant songs that refused to sit still within any one genre, preferring to suck in sounds like a Sarlac sandpit monster. Now, with the mainstreaming of the term "mash-up," the group's work seems to fall into neat categories. Sound Mirrors remains true to the group's kitchen sink approach, although individual pieces often sound too familiar.

Considerable fault can be traced to the record's collaborative approach. Now more than ever, there is a need for continuity of contributions in order to make a sensible whole. Lead single "Everything is Under Control" punches and explodes with perfect power, but perhaps better belongs on the Blues Explosion's last record Damage as Jon Spencer’s punctuations, guitar abominations, and a Chuck D-channeling Mike Ladd battle for b-side supremacy. Similarly, "Walk a Mile" looks back to the Wild Bunch days to hook peer Robert Owens with that ol' drum programming/mourning orchestra combo, while "Whistle and a Prayer" finds great parallels between the loopy melancholy of Fog and Coldcut's curious beat-skipping. While each artist (or combination of artists) sound at home on their respective tracks, the continuity of the album suffers for it. SM sounds less like a Coldcut effort than a series of Coldcut productions for other folks' records.

That said, the production quality remains fantastic. Roots Manuva checks in to toast over the raga dancehall infusion "True Skool," gelling jump-up chants seamlessly with one of Coldcut's most certifiable pop-party confections; if Roots Manuva had such bass supremacy each time out, he would certainly have a larger name stateside. Better still is the group's steadfast commitment to chaos, which receives a choice makeover at select moments. Album closer "Colours the Soul" seamlessly blends live acoustic bass performance, super fuzzy vocals from Dom Spitzer, and synthetic orchestral arrangement, conjuring both images of epic nature scenes in IMAX and intimate recording sessions on an infinite beach. Similarly, the title cut creaks with age and speaks with youth, an Indiana Jones adventure for a DJ's Holy Grail. Unfortunately, the group also revisits forgettable sounds on occasion, such as on "Just for the Kick" which features clichéd techno-synth stutters over a skinned two-step track. For the most part though, Coldcut maintains their ability to conjure multiple planes, times, and record collections at any given moment, sending the listener through wormholes of music.

However, this discussion must return to the group's standards. With an increasingly expansive vision and noteworthy reputation outside of the myopic music industry, a traditional album seems a quaint idea for Coldcut. While SMtriumphs in terms of technical merits and listening ease, it does little to further the group's reputation or to expand the depth of their recorded work. In fact, its lack of focus often mutes its attempts to strike hard. For example, while the presence of Saul Williams and Amiri Baraka is notable independently, they are wallpaper here on SM. In other words, Coldcut does little to push their voice or the voices of their collaborators.

Perhaps this is a necessary step. With an expanding choice of approaches, a return to basics seems natural; More and Black are musicians, first and foremost. And should the group choose to focus on recorded works again, consider the record a pre-season warm-up. On the other hand, should Coldcut choose another path, consider the record a reminder of a retiree's potency. stylusmagazine.

TRACKLIST

1 Man In A Garage

Vocals – John Matthias 

2 True Skool

Vocals – Roots Manuva 

3 Just For The Kick

Vocals – Annette Peacock 

4 Walk A Mile In My Shoes

Vocals – Robert Owens 

5 Mr. Nichols

Vocals – Saul Williams 

6 A Whistle And A Prayer

Vocals – Fog 

7 Everything Is Under Control

Vocals – Jon Spencer, Mike Ladd 

8 Boogieman

Vocals – Amiri Baraka 

9 Aid Dealer

Vocals – Soweto Kinch 

10 This Island Earth

Vocals – Mpho Skeef 

11 Colours The Soul

Vocals – Dom Spitzer 

12 Sound Mirrors 

FLAC

Bomb The Bass – Beat Dis · The Very Best Of Bomb The Bass (1999)

Bomb The Bass is the group name for Tim Simenon's innovative dance collective who burst on to the developing underground, acid-house scene in the late 1980s under the auspices of pioneering label Rhythm King.

Simenon, born in london in 1968, was a DJ at the legendary Wag club when he decided to attend a studio engineering course. With a bag full of records to sample from his studio trickery allied to the growth of homemade dance records he put together his first record Beat Dis wich reached number 2 in the UKin february 1988.

With it's innovative and starting use of samples, from Thunderbirds to the hi-fi demonstrtation LP "Journey Into Stereophonic Sound" it was hugely influential on the UK dance scene and a pop world looking for inspiration.

Meanwhile Simenon helped to pioneer the DJ-as-artist trend, pre dating Norman Cook and giving namechecks, within the records, to such luminaries of the wheels of steel as westwood and Mark Moore (Of S-Express Fame)

The debut album from Bomb The Bass was Into The Dragon released in october 1988 wich produced two further top 10 hits in the same year - Megablast / Don't Make Me Wait and Say A Little Player featuring the vocals of Maureen Walsh.

Simenon continued to produce several massive hits and groundbreaking tracks, for other artists, Neneh Cherry "Buffalo Stance", Adamski "Killer" and Seal's "Crazy". Not gaining enough credit for these collaborations he return to Bomb The Bass with another top 10 hit "Winter In July", in 1991 taken from the second album, "Unkown Territory". The Album marked a change of direction more trip hop than techno.

Around this time he was forced to change the group's name, temporarily, falling foul of sensitive types during the Gulf war!

Tim Simenon continues to produce other acts, working with Bjork and Naomi Campbell, among others, while Bomb The Bass activities are on hold!

TRACKLIST

Beat Dis (12" Version) 5:58

Megablast (Rap Merlin & DJ Dezire) 6:52

Say A Little Prayer 5:28

The Air You Breathe 6:53

Don't Make Me Wait 4:19

Liquid Metal 4:24

Shake It 5:11

Dynamite Beats 1:46

Run Baby Run 4:47

On The Cut (2000 AD) 3:53

Hey You 3:24

Switching Channels 4:48

Dune Buggy Attack 4:49

Winter In July (Ubiquity Mix) 7:13

Megamix 2:57

FLAC

The Beatmasters - Life & Soul (1991)

TRACKLIST

1 Dunno What It Is (About You) 5:17

2 Boulevard Of Broken Dreams 5:17

3 Give Me A Reason 5:13

4 It Ain't Just Jazz 3:56

5 The Revengers 3:13

6 Whispering Tree 5:09

7 Deeper Into Harmony 5:21

8 Night In Acton 4:45

9 A Fist Full Of Dub 4:28

10 Day On Vibration 3:45

11 Boulevard Of Broken Dreams

(Freebop Mix) 5:27

12 Rrrock The Rhythm 4:41

FLAC

Bomb The Bass - Unknown Territory (1991)

Throughout The Entire World 4:38 

Switching Channels 4:49 

Love So True (Depth Charge Remix) 6:11 

Winter In July (7'' Mix) 4:32 

You See Me In 3D Remix 4:04 

Liquid Metal 4:19 

Run Baby Run 4:53 

Dune Buggy Attack 1991 3:23 

Understand This 5:11 

The Air You Breathe 6:53 

Winter In July (Ubiquity Mix) 7:15 

Love So True (12'' Mix) 6:02 

Pressure Point 5:14 

Moody 5:18

FLAC

Ill Blu - Bellion / Dragon Pop (2010)

Bellion

Dragon Pop

320

D1 – V2 (12") (2007)

1 I'm loving

2 Instep

3 Speed

320

D1 is London based dubstep producer Dwayne Marsh.

Son of 90s jungle producer Michael Anthony Marsh.

Four Tet - There Is Love In You (2010)

TRACKLIST

Angel Echoes 4:00 

Love Cry 9:13 

Circling 5:18 

Pablo's Heart 0:12 

Sing 6:49 

This Unfolds 7:55 

Reversing 2:40 

Plastic People 6:34 

She Just Likes To Fight 4:34 

320

Kieran Hebden first came on the scene in the 1990s as a member of Fridge, a post-rock outfit that to me always looked better on paper than they sounded on record. Whatever you think of his first band, Hebden's subsequent career can be seen as the idea of post-rock done right. His appetite for music, on the evidence presented in his albums, singles, DJ sets, and collaborations, is voracious. But Hebden has a way of transforming and integrating influences rather than channeling them. So if his loose improvised collaborations with drummer Steve Reid captured something of the spirit of the classic late-60s free jazz records on Impulse!, they also managed to carve out a unique and identifiable aesthetic that sounds very much like today. When working with others, like the wooly free-folk unit Sunburned Hand of the Man or the dubstep producer Burial, Hebden knows when to lead and when to get out of the way. But all the while, whatever the context, he's absorbing. And when it comes to his own records as Four Tet, he has a knack for combining sounds from all over and making them his own.

Rounds is the one undisputed Four Tet classic, but all are at least good. It's not unusual for Four Tet records to have a few dull patches, but given Hebden's M.O., that's never a big problem. You expect him to explore a bit, so it's okay when once in a while something doesn't quite gel. Ringer, an intriguing EP from 2008 that throbbed with a minimal pulse and revealed a surprisingly austere side to his music, is a good example. It was the kind of record you wanted to inch closer to, because you had the sense there might be more going on beneath the surface than you'd initially realized. The follow-up album, There Is Love in You, is the glorious sound of those ideas being drawn into the light.

This is the most focused Four Tet album by a huge margin, and for some listeners that could be an issue. Hebden apparently refined this music over the course of a long stint as a resident DJ at the London club Plastic People. He'd play developing tracks in his sets, see how people responded, and return to them armed with this information. And while the result isn't dance music proper, There Is Love in Youdefinitely functions on that plane. This isn't fist-pumping music that toys with the pleasure of pop music, like one of my favorite Four Tet tunes, "Smile Around the Face". And it's not an album that bowls you over with the density and intricacy of its textures. Instead, it's both heady and physical, subtle but powerful music for thinking and moving or ideally doing both at the same time: It's been a while since a brisk walk through the city sounded this good.

Very early in the 2000s, the corny word "folktronica" was sometimes applied to Four Tet's style. It never defined him, but the tag was applied because it described his fondness for samples of sounds that seem to be reverberating in a physical space. He sampled jazz cymbals, guitars, gamelan-style percussion, and voices, mixing them in with electronic squiggles and choppy breaks culled from hip-hop. Hebden's fondness for acoustic sounds caused his music to come over as unusually airy and bright. It made you think of daylight rather than the nocturnal crackle of sampled vinyl. Though Love is a very different album from those earlier records, remnants of the sound palette remain, imparting a similar sense of clarity, brightness, and warmth despite its late-night club-bound inspiration.

The album begins with a crisp cymbal tap on "Angel Echoes" that sounds perfectly live until a quick digital stutter comes a few bars in, and then a clipped female voice, reduced to just syllables but still conveying a strong sense of yearning, begins looping into view. There are bells, a steady midtempo 4/4 kick, and that voice, and that's about it. But "Angel Echoes", like most of the record that follows, is strangely moving in spite of its limited toolkit. After it ends abruptly and tumbles into the brilliant "Love Cry", a much more drawn-out and darkly shaded tune, it starts to become clear that another inspiration could be in play: the music produced by Hebden's schoolmate, Will Bevan aka Burial.

The pair collaborated on an intriguing two-track 12" last year, and if nothing else, Hebden's consistent return here to the texture and expressive possibilities of vocal fragments forms a clear link. "Sing", halfway through the record, is the most affecting and flat-out gorgeous example of the technique, as it laces the propulsive housey rhythmic thrust-- the push and pull of the kick and snare, bits of percussion, a short and repetitive synth motif-- with an alien, genderless voice that curls into a kind of weary howl. The effect reminds me of nothing so much as the "ah-AH-ah" vocals that snake through Aphex Twin's immortal "Windowlicker", and Hebden's processing gives "Sing" a similar sense of simultaneous grounding and weird dislocation.

Hebden has studied Aphex Twin carefully, having made his first splash in 1999 when he remixed a track from SAW II for one of Warp's 10th Anniversary compilations. Elsewhere on Love, you can find the creative melding of beats and classical minimalism that producers like Richard James and Nobukazu Takemura were exploring in the 90s. An array of metallic percussion pops up, organized into hypnotic grid-like patterns that gradually build and change over the track's duration. The voice sample in "Circling" doesn't appear until two-thirds of the way through the track's runtime, and it brings with it a cluster of bright electronic tones that call to mind the iconic pulse of Reich/Riley minimalism. The loping, sleepy "This Unfolds" has several layers of quietly twinkling sound happening at once, and you can shift your perception to follow along with any one of them or simply let the whole thing wash over you. Though it mostly lays back and doesn't waste any notes,There Is Love in You always has just enough going on to pull you back in any time you feel like relegating it to the background. It works best taken whole, rather than broken into individual tracks.

Whenever There Is Love in You comes to the closing "She Just Likes to Fight", a quietly pretty instrumental built around a straightforward guitar melody, I start thinking of Hebden's early days. There's a moment at the 2:18 mark where the music pauses for a moment as a tapped guitar harmonic rings out, and it brings me back for a split-second to "Harmonics", the acoustic guitar instrumental that is the one Fridge tune I love without reservation. It's such a basic and elemental thing, the overtones of one metal guitar string vibrating in place, but in the right hands it becomes a tool that can be used to deliver a surprising blast of feeling. The simple power of sound is something this guy has understood from the beginning. pitchfork.com/reviews