high powered

Maybe it's because I was a teenager in the early nineties but I have a lot of affection sample-based hip-hop of that era. I guess it's differentiating between hip-hop that has producers making a groove from mostly live instrumentation, and having someone cutting and pasting a track together from well documented breaks and records. The deeper that collection of breaks and records goes, the more interesting it is for me, and in those pre-internet days, hearing samples you'd likely never find the origins of was mind-bending! Of course, now we have whosampled.com to ruin that, but I think it's a good kind of ruining. If we never got to hear those original records, maybe we wouldn't have fallen in love with the other sounds we've found?

Anyway, I'm posting a few random tracks today that don't have much tying them together, other than two are from the early nineties, and one is something weird I'd never have found if it weren't for the modern internet.

First up, I guess Dee Barnes is homeless? That's a shame, and I guess she's been trying to raise funds to get herself somewhere better. I don't know much about Dee, other than her hosting Pump It Up, a show I never got to watch with my living in the suburbs of Northeastern Ohio, and the aftermath of Dr. Dre's appearance on that show where he assaulted her. As I understand it, her career stalled afterward and Pump It Up was cancelled. Whatever happened, Dee was clearly talented and I hope she gets the support she needs. That said, I had no idea that Dee was part of a group in the early nineties, Body and Soul, which were affiliated with the Delicious Vinyl label and Def Jef. They only released one 12" and a few other tracks before disappearing. I guess it could be argued they weren't different enough from Salt 'n' Pepa, but by that rationale, how many rappers have just bit someone else's style and gotten sales off of it? Is that what happened? I don't know, but Body and Soul deserved a place in the hip-hop world. Check out High Powered, the b-side to the Dance to the Drummer's Beat 12".

Also of that era, and also holding a peculiar connection to Dre and N.W.A., is Candyman, probably best known for his sex rap, Knockin' Boots. I never loved it all that much, but it was popular so it got played and Candyman got to put out another record for Epic. This one, Playtime's Over, seemed cheesy and dated before it hit the shelves, and if you need evidence, look no further than Oneighundredskytalkpinelevenotwosevenine, the first single from the album. And yes, that's the proper name of the track. It's kinda fun, but also suffers from serious ego trippin'. Not to mention, who decided that was a good name for the track? I've seen promotional stuff that listed the song under variations of the name like 1-800-SKYTALK, but perhaps they had issues with the service having their number printed on nationally available records? The song was also probably hurt by SkyTalk changing their name to SkyPager shortly after the record came out. Didn't hurt A Tribe Called Quest, but they weren't giving anyone their personal number to leave messages. This was also a long time before Mike Jones decided to share his phone number with the world, something that doesn't seem to have been replicated since. Or maybe Candyman's song was just lame. You be the judge.

And here's one more, the sole release from Pizzy Yelliott, a Norwegian group affiliated with the Mungolian Jet Set, who did the remix featured here. If you've ever wanted to hear a Bob Marley cover where the entire thing is filled with helium and you're supposed to dance to jagged synth rhythms, the original Pizzy version fulfilled that desire, whereas the remix just got weird and then weirder. Seriously, I can't accurately describe how bizarre this acid house freak-out is or how much I love it, just check it out and get weird with it.

Nipponia Electronica

Ever seen this?



This was intended for release on the Dreamcast. It was supposedly finished but was cancelled and has never leaked. Apparently demos were pressed but they found a multiplayer bug on the discs and decided not to issue them. Maybe it cost too much to repress them, maybe they didn't have faith in the game, maybe the Dreamcast was all but dead. Whatever the reason, it didn't come out, and this seems to be most of what's left of it, barely a memory.

The gameplay isn't what interests me. I like the visuals, but they don't grab me either. It's the sound. The music and vocodered voice are arresting.

When I looked for more info on who may have done what related to Dee Dee Planet, I found a mention of Kentaro Hamasoto having been credited with SOUND. Whether that's music or just the sounds in the game, I don't know, but he has a very interesting YouTube channel named Nipponia Electronica, which you can visit by clicking on those very words. Lots of sound and video experiments, very cool stuff.

I don't know if I'll ever get to hear more of the music from Dee Dee Planet, or if Hamasoto is the person responsible for it's unique vibes, but I'll keep looking. For now, check out the above video of Dee Dee Planet and if you want more info about it, visit Unseen64. And definitely check out Nipponia Electronica, it's pretty damn cool.

so..., do you like... stuff?

K Records are a complete oddity these days. The long-standing label apparently owes tons of money to it's artists and is trying to stay afloat, while it's founder, Calvin Johnson, of Beat Happening fame, continues having a solo career. It's one of those things where I don't know what to think about their actions. They could be genuinely trying to work everything out, but you don't hear about that. They could be ignoring the issues, but you don't hear about that either. On top of that, while most of the catalog seems to be available digitally, some stuff remains unavailable. Some has been reclaimed by the artists, like Beck's One Foot in the Grave, but I can't say that for everything else. So I don't know what to think, but they're still operating, and Lois Maffeo is still there, so I'll ignore problems in favor of assuming their hearts are still in the right places until I hear further. They're still in the U.S., and it's still innocent until proven guilty. Anyway, hard to have bad vibes for a label as cool as K. Not like Greg Ginn and the way he continues to abuse the artists' whose music he released on SST.

So I had to find an original 7" of Dub Narcotic Sound System's Fuck Shit Up since it's not available digitally and I couldn't tolerate listening to a shitty MP3 that someone ripped poorly and encoded in a low bit-rate any longer. I'm not including the b-side, which is a "version" and is okay, but the b-side does not win this round. Not even close. Enjoy the a-side in all it's anarchistic glory.

Where's Bowie? Where's the dust?

To think, you'd reissue a weirdo punk album and not include the track that earned it it's name. Was it because of the publishing? It's a parody of sorts which should protect it from such issues. It simply amazes me that it's not listed on any version of the album, not even the original pressings, and it doesn't appear on any reissues, only that aforementioned original pressing. I don't know what Black Randy would say about it, but I guess it's too late now. All the same, enjoy.

electric relaxation

Here's a little something for you to relax to. You can see the tracklist on the Mixcloud page.

today

I guess it's time to get this over with.