Monday, December 05, 2005

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New JEHST videoclip for Nuke Proof Suit

New clip for the title track of his new album, Nuke Proof Suit, is up on The Beta Brothers website. To be frank, it looks like an Eminem clip on a 1000th of the budget. The similiarities are obvious, fom the Osama visuals, to dressing up as a woman, to the comic book visuals. Though I think I'm a bit daft & it is indeed a parody of Eminem's clips, then that is okay. Ha! Dolt! You be the judge. Whereas their video for Skinnyman's Council Mind of Estate is so much better in its simplicity.

Beta Brothers website
Jehst website

MP3: RHAJHA - Fantastic ft. Braintax & Jehst
From the Spanish artist's album, Tierra Caliente.
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USA: CUNNINLYNGUISTS - A Piece Of Strange. 2006

Now that was unexpected. I've just listened to the 3rd full length album from the Southern US (Georgia & Kentucky) lads & all I can say, is holy friggin crap. This is already up for one of the best albums of next year (due for release at the end of January). I just felt compelled to get the buzz out there early. I have been championing these guys (& the whole QN5 roster) since their first album, for they have been releasing quality since day one. I notice that producer Kno has taken a back seat with the vocals, so they have used the services of a new emcee Natti to help out Deacon The Villain. One listen to the production & you can gather that Kno must've seriously put his head down to create an incredibly impressive musical soundtrack & probably didn’t have time to write any lyrics, or maybe he has just moved deeper into his beats. It's an absolutely beautiful album & it flows triumphantly without any frustrating impediments. No duds on this one at all. The instrumental tracks provide a buffer that only gives us time to soak in the lyrical input. Why do we need this? Well, for one, the content is replete with subject matter that provides room for contemplation. I especially love the track with Tone Deff, The Gates, it evokes a very spiritual aura & the music accommodates the lyrical content to the letter. There's a couple of guests, most well known is Cee-Lo & he puts in a restrained yet convincing performance that connects the 2 different styles. I could go on & on, but you’d best just cop this for yourselves.

When I think of their previous 2 albums, I couldn't have thought of anything more different, so let that be a warning to you. This one is a very serious venture, all the goofy antics have disappeared, so I think their typical listener might be surprised. It’s almost like they have left their teenage years behind & have reached adulthood. I can't hate on that, in fact I celebrate their growth, for I have matured along with it. Lets hope the fans will or can do the same.

Will this be the album that finally enable them to burst out of their underground bubble? Not really sure, it might appeal to some general music critics who appreciate the musicality & the lack of cheese, but I fail to see a general audience gravitating towards the intelligence & sophistication that it contains. I wish I was wrong & hope I am wrong, for it’s not often I get an album that seriously is head & shoulders above the rest & it should be shared with as many people as possible. For this is one of those underground albums that if given the right push, could definitely find an appreciative market outside of the regular heads. Heck, even those who don't like hip hop might enjoy this if given half a chance. 3 dope albums strong. Congrats.

QN5 website
MP3: The CUNNINLYNGUISTS - Beautiful Girl
From the album A Piece of Strange. LA Underground Entertainment/QN5
MP3: The CUNNINLYNGUISTS - Seasons ft Masta Ace
From the album Southernunderground. Freshchest.

Sunday, December 04, 2005

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FUZZ ONE: A Bronx Childhood
By Vincent Fedorchak
September 2005, Memoir, 392 Pages, 6 1/2” x 9 1/4”
Hardcover, 350 photographs, ISBN: 0-9725920-1-6
Published by Testify

Whew hoo. Amazing. That's all i can say. One the best presents I got for my birthday. Man, i cannot express how incredible this book is in its scope, ambition & depth. It's actually quite overwhelming. The presentation & format it is top notch. A lot of love & I presume stories of pain, have gone into this one. Fuzz One aka Vincent proves himself to be quite an accomplished writer, in both meanings of the term, graffiti writer & authour. It certainly does contain some exaggerated embellishments by someone hazily trying to recall a past that was affected by all sorts of intoxicants & paint fumes. Makes great reading, wether it's 100% accurate or not. The faded photographs are invaluable & emphasise the era that the tales are set, specifically from 1970 -1977. One of the main downfalls of most graff books & magazines are their lack of text. Sure it's great to see all the artwork, but personally I am just as interested in the personalities who create the work as I am in their output.

It's another essential book that expands upon previous books about the graffiti sub-culture. The T-Kid book has now been pushed back to the end of February, so gives me plenty of time to dig my teeth into this one.

I love this Amazon readers comment in his rather dim & negative review, 'The photos are amaturish and blurry'. Priceless. Why Fuzz One didn't have a 6megapixel digital camera was a major oversight. The fool. Ha!

Subway Outlaws website

LINK: Buy book here - Amazon

Friday, December 02, 2005

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TERIYAKI BOYZ
A Japanese supergroup created by Bathing Ape supremo Nigo.

This is the Teriyaki Boyz 1st album from Def Jam Recordings/Ape Sounds featuring the MC's Ilmari, Ryo-Z (Rip Slyme), Verbal, Wise (M-Flo) & Nigo with sound produced by The Neptunes, Daft Punk, DJ Premier, Adrock (Beastie Boys), Cornelius, Mark Ronson, The Alchemist, Dan The Automator and more.

I’m sorry, but no matter how you look at it, the word contrived cannot stray too far from ones mind. Wether it’s a pisstake, a fashion vehicle or an expensive vanity project, it’s just stupid. How different is this from Australian or American Idol? Is it guaranteed money in the bank? Will the Vice, Dazed & Confused, Fader kids wet themselves over it? Suckers will most likely lap it up or is it seriously too cheesy for even them. Surely they'll have thier own sneakers as well.
And Jay-Z has signed them to Roc-A-Fella???

Things become cool out of happenstance, things that are marketed as ‘cool’ rarely are. It’s that intangibility of the unknown response that make things interesting. Manufactured hipness is just rubbish. Personally, whenever I see group photos taken of the artists all wearing the same clothing, excitedly shouting open mouths at camera, I just think…pop shit.

…but then I heard the DJ Shadow track & well, it's not a bad attempt at trying to emulate the sound of the now termed 'random rap' era of the late 80s.The Cut Chemist is another track trying to sound more old school, circa 1980 hip hop, so them I like. A couple more & that's about it. Most just sounds hell corny.

The things you can do with a shitload of cash...

MP3: TERIYAKI BOYZ - Kamikaze produced by DJ Shadow.
MP3: TERIYAKI BOYZ - School of Rock produced by Cut Chemist
LINK: TERIYAKI BOYZ videoclip - Heartbreaker

Thursday, December 01, 2005

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AUSTRALIA:
CULTURE CONNECT - Natural Intelligence EP
The 8 members of this Darwin based outfit truely represent our multi-cultural environment, with countries like Haiti, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Holland, Zimbabwe & Ghana amongst its members backgrounds. The Territory should be proud. There’s no attempt to be anything other than they are on thsi debut EP. No feeling of contrivance & no tracks are of the 3:30min or less radio approved length. It just doesn't feel like their kind of vibe. If I could relate them to anything, they’d fit in with a range of local groups, like Reference Point, Upshot, Tzu & in an essence, The Herd. Though you can feel that they would have an affinity with a group like The Roots. All the tracks are equally as good, but The Destructors has the most appeal & displays some excellent mic skills with lyrical content that steers clear of disposability. I’d be interested to hear the emcees flow over some ‘boom bap’ kind of beats, because they do have that ‘live band rapper’ sound.

MP3: CULTURE CONNECT - Destructors
EMAIL: culture_connect_info@hotmail.com
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X-COLOR/Graffiti in Japan Exhibition Oct 1st -Dec 4th
Graffiti art has taken a very long long time to develop in Japan, but is finally beginning to flourish with some very unique styles. The typical New York style is relatively absent, with more of an emphasis on utilising artistic styles & ideas from their own cultural heritage. Magazines like Kaze have helped to foster a homegrown appreciation of the artform. So it's fantastic to see an exhibition like this in Mito (north of Tokyo) totally focused on homegrown artists. Could someone grab me a copy of the book if possible. I'd be ever so grateful...

• In English - Art Tower venue info
• Tokyo Art gallery showings - Tokyo Art Beat

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X-Color:Graffiti In Japan
Format: Softcover, ISBN: 4-902943-11-5
Publisher: © Foil, 152 pages, Japanese text

"And this is Japans first book on it's own graffiti scene.
Includes art work from 38 of the leading graffiti artists of Japan, as well as images capturing the process of creation of the graffiti displayed during the "X-COLOR Graffiti in Japan" Exhibition. With a variety of styles and live excitement of creation – feast your eyes on the "Now" of the Japanese graffiti scene, bound into a single volume for the first time ever!"

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Kaze Magazine website

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

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ITCH FM: Online UK radio
This site is manned by a stack of people, but it seriously needs a design overhaul. It's a bit clunky to navigate, but apart from that slight critique, it's a valuable place to hear fresh new UK hip hop & funk. There's the UK Zulu Nation (playing some electro & old school hip hop), Disorda (Suspect Packages) with his strictly UK selection, the Breakin Bread crew, producer wunderkid Ghost, DJ Chappas & a few more.

The bonus is that they also have videoclips to stream of new UK music. Klashnekoff, Kyza, TerraFirma, Rodney P, Blak Twang, TY, Jehst, Skinnyman, Roots Manuva Skitz, etc... Nothing too flash, but worth the occasional looksee.

ItchFm website
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K'NAAN: Somalian born Canadian emcee.

K'naan was born in Mogadishu, Somalia, the only country on the planet that does not have an active government. His father moved to Harlem in New York to work as a taxi driver. Not only sending money back home, but hip hop albums as well. After his 11th birthday K'naan moved to Harlem then relocated to Toronto, Canada where he remains. Now at the age of 28 he can reflect on his past experiences & correlate or illustrate the absurd content of some rappers lyrics. The track What's Hardcore?, is an interesting song that politely untangles the vapid fantasy lyrics of American rappers who think they live ghetto or have it hard. He does come to terms with the fact that each of us are only able to determine our position by the surroundings we grew up in, but he does at least comment on some real war stories such as those of his own countries civil war.

It's a fantastic album, lyrically & musically & speaks so much more than many of those records in which the emcees are fooling themselves thinking that the battlefields of the American suburbs are harsh. If you want depth from a gifted, yet still growing lyricist, then this might just offer something different with a hefty dose of calories for your mind & soul.

K'Naan website

MP3: K'NAAN - What's Hardcore
VIDEO: K'NAAN - Strugglin'
LINK: Canadian article - Canoe.ca

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

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HIP HOP CLASSICS #3
LONDON POSSE – London Posse 12"
BIG LIFE. 1987
A1 – London Posse
A2 – London Posse (Radio Edit)
B1 – My Beatbox Reggae Style
B2 – Posse (Instrumental Dub)

Their single Money Mad on Tim Westwoods short-lived label Justice, seems to get all the focus & some are led to believe that it was their debut single. A year before that record they released this excellent record on Big Life. The original members included the 1st appearance of an emcee named Rodie Rok, who not long after changed his name to…his real name, Rodney P. Bionic MC was also there from the start, but DJ Biznizz was on this record & then left not long after. The beatboxer was a kid named Sipho, he also left the crew to hang out with Derek B. Unfortunately he passed away in December 2004. Their name was coined when they were on tour with Big Audio Dynamite in New York. Because of their thick cockney accents, which was unusual & interesting to the Americans, this unamed crew of 4 were immediately called The London Posse. Cementing the belief that retaining your own identity is worth more than disguising it. These 2 tracks still hold up almost 20 years later.

MP3: LONDON POSSE - My Beatbox Reggae Style
MP3: LONDON POSSE - London Posse
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COOL! - Dutch film about hip hop gangster kids
Directed by Theo Van Gogh. 2004

"Though his shocking murder at the hands of an Islamic extremist in November, 2004, has generated a worldwide interest in the films of Theo Van Gogh, he has long been a prominent filmmaker in his home country of the Netherlands. Known for his propensity to address controversial subjects that no one else would dare to touch--as well as his blood relation to Vincent Van Gogh--he was killed by an assailant reacting to his short film SUBMISSION, which condemns Muslim subjugation of women. The director's last feature effort before his untimely death, COOL! was made with the students at Amsterdam's Glenn Mills Reform School, as well as well-known actors Johnny de Mol & Katja Schuurman. The story follows a group of five young hooligans and best friends: Abdel, Mohammed, Hamid, Jacky, and Jeffrey. Mostly immigrant and all disaffected, their petty crimes are elevated to a new level when Abdel gets to know beautiful bank teller Mabel, the girlfriend of a gang leader, Prof, whom Abdel admires. Prof hatches a plan to rob the bank, but the boys are instead caught and sent to reform school, where they struggle to cultivate a sense of respect for themselves and society. Set to a hip-hop soundtrack, Van Gogh has crafted a hip crime drama that makes good use of its unprofessional cast, as well as presenting the other side of the often-glamorized gangster lifestyle".

I’ve been waiting ages for this film to hit DVD. It finally appeared in the UK & the US last month. I wonder how it was recieved by the Dutch hip hop community. Knowing how it usually pans out they probably hated it.

TRAILER - Cool! wmv
LINK: English film overview - Cool!
LINK: A page with hi-res images - US press kit
LINK: Dutch article on the music artists - Soundtrack
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HIP HOP CLASSICS #2
ALPHABET SOUP – Alphabet Soup EP
AKIRFA. 1991 AR-2323
A1. Sunny Day In Harlem
A2. Uncle Sam – 1st Draft
B1. Girl You Got a Grip
B2. The Resurrection of Gertrude

Without question one of my all time favourite records. Another one that only the hard-core heads seem to know of its existence. If you like the sound of New York in the early 90s, ie, Leaders of the New School, De La Soul, Prince Paul, Organized Konfusion, Future Sound, KMD, then you really NEED this record. Straight-up drum breaks, the choicest samples & a rough rugged pure vibe that evokes. having fun. I’ve never had to look for it so I’m not sure what it goes for, but if I heard it & didn’t have it, I’d drop major coin on it in a flash. It’s that damn good. Anyone says any different, they are kidding themselves.

The 5 member crew consisted of producer Yasin (Brother Love) Gregg & emcees, Kiambu, Nubian, Deflon & Melkuan (who also provided the scratches). Recorded & mixed at I.N.S. Studios in NYC. Unfortunately that is all I know about them. They never resurfaced & as far as I know, there doesn’t seem to be any material from any of the members out there. Please do not get them confused with the West Coast’s Bay Area jazz/Rap band also known as Alphabet Soup. Couldn’t be anymore different…or weaker. Ha!

Trust me, you won't find them online via any P2P program.

MP3: ALPHABET SOUP - Sunny Day In Harlem
MP3: ALPHABET SOUP - Girl You Got A Grip
Upped: 7th December.
MP3: ALPHABET SOUP - Uncle Sam - 1st draft
MP3: ALPHABET SOUP - The Resurrection of Gertrude

Monday, November 28, 2005

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HIP HOP CLASSICS #1
SOUND ON SOUND PRODUCTIONS
- The Incredible Hump.

SALSOUL. 1980. SG-327
A1: The Incredible Hump (8:47)
B1:The Hump (2:55)
B2. Son Of The Hump (3:12)
B3. Return Of The Hump (2:46

I’ve always wondered why this 12” never gets any mention, anywhere. Which is peculiar because this was the crew that Wonder Mike was in before he joined The Sugarhill Gang (Master Gee was in a crew called Phase 2). Big Bad Hank was the only ring in. Instead of 3 emcees, there were 7 of them in this other crew & from what I can work out their names are Daddy Right, Freddie G, Prince, Mr Ikey (I think this is Wonder Mike), The Sire, Keith La Feete & Master Mixer (who also mentions that he is the DJ).

Music provided by one of the in-house musicians at the label, in fact the bass player Gordon Edwards, from the Salsoul Orchestra. The drums are loose & mega-percussive, with a fat bassline typical of the era. About 110bpm. The only major flaw is that a couple of the emcees seem to be too far away from the mic when they appear. Not terribly, but annoying enough. Lyrically they play on the theme of humpology. So it is amusing at times. Seems to be the only production by Ron McBean. The only writing credits are to Dwight Horne & Donovan Lee. The b-side includes a radio edit, drums & an instrumental. I guess it’s pretty rare, because I never see it listed I managed to get my copy from an old Italian disco DJ.

MP3: SOUND ON SOUND PRODUCTIONS - The Incredible Hump

Sunday, November 27, 2005

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Perspectives on the recent French riots

200 French politicians have backed a petition from one of the country's MPs calling for legal action against seven rappers and bands which he claims have fuelled the recent riots that have taken place around the country. At the very least the MP wants the named artists' music banned from having airplay on French radio stations.

MP Francois Grosdidier told France-Info Radio that he was not surprised young people had taken part in rioting in key French cities after being exposed to music which, he claims, incites violence. He told the radio station: "When people hear this all day long and when these words swirl round in their heads, it is no surprise that they then see red as soon as they walk past policemen or simply people who are different from them."

Published on 25 November 2005 | Source: CMU/Unlimited Media

The French Prime Minister dismisses the above claims - BBC news

You'd think that not one politician in France had ever watched the film La Haine, or even bothered to find out what is wrong in their country, in regards to it’s policy of non-multicultural integration. The you either become French or we ignore you rhetoric has surely had a wake-up call. How can a country invade another country colonise it, then get upset when the citizens from the 'colonised' countries want to go live in their land. Seems only fair trade for all the shit they went through. Would that be too much to ask? Seems as though the French's intolerance of anything from outside has now burst open irrevocably. Yet still people within the country are pointing at everything except for the root cause. As an outsider watching the film La Haine, it hinted at the situation that was the ghettoised areas of the outskirts suburbs of a Paris & beyond. It depicted immigrant families struggles & the abuse at the hands of the gendarme living in massive run down housing commission block apartments. Nice!

The French have always been so insistent on being French that it has obviously been detrimental to a huge section of the society there. And now the politicians & the jumped up right wing media have now started to BLAME hip hop or rather 'Rap Artists' for causing the problems. Not the other way around of course. That would be too logical. That the artists were reporting on the problems that were occurring in the first place in their lyrics. Nooo!! Couldn't be. Amazing. Lets shoot the messenger for he is the cause... Whew..!! Ya gotta love that screwy logic. There is obviously a huge problem & it needs to be addressed.

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• The prophetic content of the film La Haine is discussed with director Mathieu Kassovitz - New York Times
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AND IT DON’T STOP: Hip Hop Photography by Mika
Large format hardcover, 320 pages, 300 photographs, size 24 x 30 cm / 9.5 x 11.8", four-color / duotone throughout. Printed on luxurious, heavy, double-coated matt art paper.

Pretty fresh looking photographic project from Germany. Images taken by Swedish located Finnish photographer Mika Väisanen, specifically from between the years 1997 & 2004. Layout is designed by Gizmo, one of those responsible for the look of the long running German hip hop magazine Backspin. At 320 pages it really is quite a magnificent looking book. It’s a lavish hefty tome so obviously it doesn’t come cheap. Retails in Oz for about $130.00. (US$99.) Christmas is here soon, so it might make a great present for anyone into hip hop & portrait photography. Both the German & Australian distributors/publishers also carry Subway Art & several other graffiti related books. And it has German & English text.

LINK: Australian distributors - Soundtrack
LINK: German publishers - Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf
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ALL-STAR ZULU THROWDOWN
I just wanted to post up this screenshot that my man C4 took of when Bam hosted our weekly music video show RAGE. I'm pretty sure that Excel from the Melbourne chapter of the Zulu Nation went to this a few weeks ago. Keen to hear how it all went down. Tim Dog & Bambaataa are doing a show in the city of Deventer, Netherlands on the 3rd of Dec @Burgerweeshuis.
Zulu Nation website
Click on the images to see hi-res.

TOOLS OF WAR
If you have any interest in what is going on with true school hip hop & want to know when Grandmaster Caz is performing next or you are in New York & want to put in some b-boy practice, then sign up for the Tools of War newsletter. Every week they send out a very informative update on news events, show, galleries, etc.. Not only just New York, but also about overseas events. It's run by Fabel (R.S.C./Magnificent Force) & his always productive wife, Christie Z.
• Sign up for the weekly newsletter here - Tools Of War.
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CATFIGHT - Chick graffiti/street art PDF magazine
The October issue of this Netherlands based mag is now up for download on their website. No 2 is 24 pages of artwork that highlights more contributions from the girls. And yes yes, They started at 0, so it's really No 3. Deadline for sending photos for next issue is Januari 15th. They are cool little mags with a quirky nature. Have a look at the ad for The Pony Project: An exhibition of art inspired by every girls’ favorite toy. Check out My Little Pony.

Catfight website
Link: Download - Catfight 02 PDF
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SPAIN: SFDK - 2005
Zatu & Action Sanchez have been honing their craft consistently since the mid-90s & have surpassed their previous efforts with amazing results. This new album came out in March & has apparently sold quite well without much airplay, but then this is their 5th full length abum, so you'd think they'd have quite a following by now. Yet their style has just become so much greater. Wicked album, not that I understand anything they say, but I can tell they have the goods. They even travelled to New York to get Tony Dawsey @ MasterDisk to finalise the mix down. Sanchez was on production, but he had a lil' help from Jefe de la M, Big Hozone, Juan Profundo & Hazhe (Zaragoza). If you have any interest in current Latin flavours, then hook yourself up a copy, oh & if you do, would you get me one on vinyl. Please! That would be nice.

Guests include, Fernando Novi of PPM, Roberto Cantero, guitarist Carlos Cruz, Tote King, Legendario (Dogma Crew), El Puto Loko (H Mafia), Juaninacka & Jefe de la My Morodo.

Available on CD & Double Vinyl.

Discography
- 2005 (2005, SFDK Records)
- DESPUES DE... (MAXI) (2004, SDFK Records)
- 2001 ODISEA EN EL LODO (2003, Zona Bruta)
- DESDE LOS CHIQUEROS (2000, Zona Bruta)
- SIEMPRE FUERTES (1999, Zona Bruta)
- LLÁMALO COMO QUIERAS (1997, Zeroporsiento)

SFDK website
BOA Records website
• Nicely designed Spanish language website - Hip Hop Hispano
MP3: SFDK - Duelo de Vikingos ft Promoe From the album Odisea en el Lodo.
MP3: SFDK - Yo Qué Hago Aqui (con Jefe de la M) From the album 2005.

Saturday, November 26, 2005

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DJ CASH MONEY files
I had iTunes on random & a track came on & I thought, 'Hey, this is pretty cool' & then it dawned on me, it was The Music Maker, the instrumental/dj track on Cash Money & Marvelous' album, from Where's the Party At? So I thought I'd up a few tracks by the 1987 New Music Seminar winner (DJ competition). The Cut Killer track is from the French Double H DJ Crew album of 1999. It's pretty dope. Has a nice swing to the rhythm & it's pretty funny when Cash & Cut start talking. I'll have a look for the NMS audio & anything else interesting in my boxes here. I've seen him play a few times recently & all I can say is...not really my taste in music. More the jiggy/R&B commercial vibe. His history rules though.

MP3: DOUBLE H DJ CREW - Cut Killer & Cash Money
MP3: CASH MONEY - The Music Maker
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SHA PO LANG
Directed by Wilson Yip.
Starring Sammo Hung, Donnie Yen, Simon Yam
.
This has been one of the most anticipated films in recent HK history. Contemporary set martial art action films have been very thin on the ground since HK was handed back to mainland China. So all eyes have been on this one to ressurect the genre. It finally opened on Nov 18th. Lets hope it gets a local release soon. C'mon, it's got a 53 yr old Sammo. Bring it on.

Plot:
A crimelord (Sammo Hung) covers his tracks so well that he always gets away from all crimes he does, assisted by four fast-talking English lawyers. A professional assassin (Wu Jing), who never fails on his assignment, appearing out of nowhere. Four policemen so eager to nab the crimelord that they will stop at nothing, insofar as taking justice into their own hands. Standing in their ways is a new police inspector (Donnie Yen) who goes strictly by the book. Thus begins an intricately woven high-octane action thriller that is full of complications, of explosive actions, exhilarating car chases, intense shootouts and realistic fist to fist combats from the award-winning screenwriters Szeto Kam-Yuen and Wu Wei Lun...

Film website • Trailer: SPL

More information here - Love Asian Film.
10/10 review from Toronto Film Festival: Here
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EMBEE - Tellings from Solitaria
Finally it gets a local release. Almost a year later.
Not to be confused with the UK DnB producer with the same name, this one is Magnus Bergkvist, one of the producers in Sweden's Loop Troop. After a few side projects that culminated in some highly impressive EPS, Embee comes correct with an album of varying styles. He won best album of the Urban section of the Swedish Grammis. Among the guests we get acoustic guitar maestro José González of Gothenberg (who is actually in Australia this month), 21yr old female jazz vocalist Vanessa Liftig (her group BLESS also appears on the track Soulrain), the thoughtful Rhodesian born singer Rantoboko, the industrious emcee Timbuktu & of course Loop Troop. It's a deeply soulful selection with a sophisticated sound from a dj/producer that used to be known as DJ MC Marshall. A true gem worthy of any awards thrown at it.

Loop Troop website

VIDEO: EMBEE ft. José Gonzalez - Send Someone Away Quicktime
VIDEO: EMBEE ft. Vanessa Liftig - Not Tonite Real Player stream
MP3: EMBEE - Brev Från Kabitten
This is an exclusive track that was on a promo only CD. It's a pretty fresh instrumental with kids & an old crooner dude singing.
MP3: EMBEE ft Timbuktu - The Sallad Days
From the album, Tellings from Solitaria. DVG/Method. 2005 Sweden. Distributed by Shock