The funk, soul and boogie specialists at French label Favorite are celebrating the release of Mr President’s (aka Patchworks) new long player ‘Number One’ by giving away 200 downloads of exclusive track ‘Before The Peaks Turn Red’.

For your free download and all past/present/future goodness check the labels’ new website www.favoriterec.com

45 fans should also expect to see the first single from the album ‘The Best Is Yet To Come’ hit fine record stores around about now!

This Saturday is Record store Day in both the UK and the US. It will see many stores offering limited numbers reissues and one-offs in an attempt to get folks off the info-highway and into stores. 

Here’s some that caught my eye…

Andreya Triana “Lost Where I belong”
remixes from Flying Lotus, Theo Parrish,
Bonobo and Mr Scruff
(Ninja Tune 300 only)

Paul Weller “Andromeda- Mixes”
4 track remix suite from Amorphous
Androgynous of the track Andromeda
(Island 500 only)

Arthur Russell “Calling Out Of Context”
12 new tracks Double 12″ set
(Beggars 180 only)

Harmonia 76 “Remixies”
inc mixes from The Field, Appleblim,
Shackleton, BurgerVoid, MIT, Quantenschaum
(Groneland 100 only)

Jamie Lidell “Compass”
(Warp Records 150 only)

Grace Jones “Love You Too Life”
Digital Mystikz remix 1 sided
(Wall Of Sound 500 only)

You may need to bring your boxing gloves if you’re banking on taking any of these home with you… Ah, it reminds me of the good old days when we used to fight over the last copy of a white label on a Saturday afternoon.

Without doubt one of the most essential jazz reppin’ independents of recent years has been the Paris based Heavenly Sweetness label and they continue their dedication to re-issue artistry by announcing an epic schedule for the year ahead. Their 09/10 release slate will see no less than 24 long gone Blue Note albums hit record stores once again for the first time since their original release, with the first wave of high quality 180g vinyls and their painstakingly duplicated original artwork already in some finer record stores just in time for Christmas. Watch now for Herbie Hancock’s – Inventions And Dimensions, Andrew Hill’s – Lift Every Voice, Duke Pearson’s – Wahoo!, Art Taylor’s – A.T.’s Delight, Bobby Hutcherson’s – Now! and Grachan Moncur III’s – Evolution…Nice!

I guess like many, my initial thoughts were “How?”, luckily Franck Descollonges from the label took some time out to give us the scoop on the project and how it came about. Franck a previous EMI (owners of the Blue Note rights) employee picks up on the project’s out the blue conception. “I had a call from an old EMI friend who had also left the company. He knew that I had set up a jazz label and he asked me the strange question…”Would you be interested in re-issuing some Blue Note LPs?” Obviously you can imagine my enthusiastic answer, however I had some real doubts about the chances of it’s success”.

Anything but simple the planning stages of the schedule would take over a year to pull together, so “patience and motivation” where pivotal watchwords in bringing it all together. Franck also cites in no small part Nicolas Plug’s (Boss at Blue Note France) contribution to the projects completion. “Nicolas helped us a lot. He really supported our project, even organising a meeting with Bruce Landval and Michael Cuscuna the bosses of Blue Note who are such a legends. We were really impressed!”

However, a great impression was obviously something mutually felt as access to the Blue Note catalogs hallowed vaults was soon offered “I think that our enthusiasm and our devotion to jazz seduced the jazz lovers. Surely our situation making them remember their own debut in the business…So, maybe this is a story about music lovers.” Once the legal paperwork was drawn up and the green light given the two jazz obsessors at Heavenly Sweetness now had the mind boggling task of selecting what to re-issue.

Once their initial list frenzy had dissipated a much clearer vision emerged, “We really wanted to avoid Blue Note classics (many of which have been re-issued), so we tried to focus on unknown or unsung records. We wanted people to discover some of the different (less well known) sounds of Blue Note”. Sticking with their own label ethos “We of course choose some spiritual jazz LPs, but we also tried to pick a large selection highlighting the variety of different styles and periods at Blue Note”.

With the short-list drawn up Antoine (Rajon) and Franck would soon have some serious searching to do as “Blue Note had all the masters, but had lost much of the artwork for the covers. So we had to find the original LPs in perfect condition [allowing us] to have the best result possible”…No mean feat for some of these titles! Luckily Heavenly Sweetness’ friend and photographer Fred Thomas would prove instrumental in find obtaining some of the illusive artwork. “Fred is a huge fan of Blue Note so it was a dream for him to work on this. He amazingly actually had some of the records and pulled in a few lps from other friends. He did the high resolution scans and spent hours clearing up those covers. Without his help nothing would have been possible!”. Franck proclaims “Blue Note Love”.

Next up the contentious audiophile vs purist debate “to keep it analogue or digitally remaster?”. “We chose to speak with many Blue Note fans, record dealers and audiophiles before deciding to have the perfect sound, we must use only analog sounds, no digits or remastering. “So, we ask Blue Note for copies of the original master tapes and they send us 1/4inch master tapes which where so old and full of dust it was impossible to do a lacquer!” After much fretting a solution was found “when we asked Capitol Studios to do new copy of the master tapes. At last the sound was great!”

There is no hesitation when I ask Franck to pick a favourite from the first six albums “My favourite is Bobby Hutcherson’s ‘Now’. What an atmosphere in this album, everything from the music, to the voices, the melodies has a strong vibe; maybe it’s due to the Eugene McDaniel’s presence!”. Looking for a surprise package in this first wave “It has to be the Art Taylor lp, pure Blue Note 60’s sound, just listen to the cover of Coltrane ‘Syeeda Song Flute’!”.

So, for jazz fans old and new this is nothing less than spectacular news and thanks to Antoine & Franck means your 2010 is guaranteed to be dusted in sweet Blue Note sugar!

words: Frank Dubya

A vintage black Range Rover effortlessly breezes across Edinburgh’s Royal Mile to the leafier cobbled streets on the south-west of the city, with the curious topics of bio fuels, LPG conversions and the outdoor pursuit of fishing holding court. Minutes later, I’m sitting drinking tea in the bright airy living room of fellow Scot Neil Landstrumm.

A stark contrast to what you might perceive if you’re familiar with Neil’s career dating back to Peacefrog’s techno infused house heyday of the mid 90’s, his sci-fi themed workouts for Tresor or the deviant tech-plorations of his Scandinavia imprint. He’s just released his third album for Planet Mu ‘Bambaataa Eats His Breakfast’, which continues to see a whole new generation of musical youth evolving with his bad trip clubscapes where dub, electronics and bass collide.

The new album explores a manifold of scenes across it’s 8 tracks, somehow emanating to a less strict architecture than the previous ‘Lord For £39’; more experimental and new direction seeking. “I think that’s fair. What I find when doing music is that I’ll do a track that’s kinda getting on the way, but it’s not quite right. Then I’ll do another one that’s “oh yeah that’s not bad” and then I’ll maybe do a third one that nails it”.

The emotive title of the album also gets me wondering if there is a link between content and a conscious pooling from the past; a possible rekindling of the spirit found in Bambaataa’s lo-fi adventures. “Yeah, I think so. I’ve always liked to go back to Bambaataa and the New York freestyle thing, which was melodic, routed in melody and key signatures. Quite poppy sounds, but with quite simple stark beats”.

This idea of lending from pop influences is certainly not something Neil is at odds with, “I’ve always had leanings to do pop music, I like pop music…I’ve never said underground music is it. I’ve done so many records that a 1000 people in East Germany like, why not do something that’s maybe a bit more accessible”.

Whilst there are moments of foreboding darked out club tension and blistering acid-attack scales aplenty, lighter more optimistic refrains are also evident posing the questions is this dark tech overlord now mellowing? Laughter ensues before Neil agrees “I default to dark. If I go to a keyboard I play dark, so why not try and do something different cause I can always do that”.

This warmer heartbeat is evident across tracks like ‘Coconut Kestrel’, ‘Eva’ and the joyous reggae bubbler ‘SK1- The Damager’,“It’s a really warm track I think. Having Eva my daughter [8 months ago] did change something in me. I can be quite a dark individual” and “when I’m working I’m very solitary. Having a baby does give you a different positivity. A lot of the Bambaataa period was looking forward to this, done when Liza was still pregnant…So there is a certain positivity to it”.

With the historical baggage that comes with a 15 year career, Neil is all too familiar with generalised aspersions easily cast on a seasoned artists new yarns, something he’s brushes off as par for the course. “I think I’ve always used the same palette of sounds right from the start till now. I don’t really see a difference between the stuff I was doing in 1994 and now…It’s the same thing to me. Its just what’s coming out, you know?”

Sentiments unconsciously echoed when Neil comments on the emergence of dubstep, whereby the work of producers like himself in many ways paved the road for the new vanguard, “I think in a way it was a half new [idea], it wasn’t a new new. I think it was basically a point at which disparate electronica producers met. Techno people, electro people, dub, drum ‘n’ bass, hip hop; a kind of interim change” and a key point that motivated Landtsrumm to “put my own stamp on it”.

Winding back to his first album for Planet Mu ‘The Restaurant Of Assassins’ Neil’s roots fervour frames that mark in no uncertain terms “That was me trying to regurgitate my early influences. That was the point of it. I’ve always loved 90-91, the British stuff, drum ‘n’ bass, rave, the jungle thing, so much of the dubstep and [it's subsequent offshoots] owe so much to those foundations….It’s all bass lines, breaks and darkness”.

Re-collating in the present Neil’s focus is still clearly fixed on evolutions, “You have to make yourself relevant, you can’t lye on your laurels in electronic music or just music in general. You’ve always got to be going forward”. Ideals mirrored when discussing the ghetto-tek neoteric of the ‘Empire For A Fiver’ EP recently released on Glasgow’s Stuff Records.“There are a couple of tracks on that that are heading in the right direction, they get it right but they’re still quite underground and dark. I feel like maybe the next crop I do will nail it”.

With Neil’s long standing career it would have been easy to trawl through past works and anecdotal stories (which we did). However, post-interview it seemed much more obvious to just focus on what is at it’s essence his intuitive ability to take stock, reinterpret and contribute with his own distinctly progressive hallmarks. Hallmarks that made him relevant back in ‘94 and equally see him revered today by the next generation of artist and listeners alike. On the basis of his latest offerings, Landstrumm isn’t someone just ‘keeping up’, he’s actually out front ‘pushing the pace’ and it’s clear there is still ‘plenty of gas in the tank’. So, grab yer breakfast with Bam, cause here comes your future!

We posted up on this excellent cover of the Christmas carol ‘Silent Night’ by D.C. Recordings artist Kelpe last year. The link has been long dead, but as we are all finding our festive fervour once again Kel has graciously gifted it to us, one and all!

Follow the link below to his Soundcloud page where you can download it for free and if you’re still in search of that special gift, forget gold, frankincense or myrrh; Kel’s recent ‘Cambio Wechsel’ album is a true light for those seeking new joy!

http://soundcloud.com/kelpe/silent-night

http://www.myspace.com/kelpemusic

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Other contributors to EP’s 1 & 2 of the compilation include Dorian Concept, Samiyam, Dizz1, Nosaj Thing, Mono/Poly, Fulgeance, Dalt Wisney, Kenlo Craqnuques, Danny Breaks and DJ Adlib. Also watch out for a limited repress of the “beat generation” classic ‘Beat Dimensions Vol. 1′.

With the recent announcement from Red Bull Music that their twelfth Academy in 2010 will be hosted in the UK’s capital city London, the RBM crew have put together a collection of personal audio guides from some of the musical inhabitants who’ve called LDN home.

The first episode of ‘Outside In – London Belongs To Me’ is hosted by dubstep producer Mala of Digital Mystikz/DMZ, who presents his own very personal take on the spots that have nurtured and influenced his own musical journey back lit by the music that defines it.

Applications for RBMA 2010 are now open. Find out more here

Check ‘Outside In – London Belongs To Me’ (Episode 1 – Mala) here

Check out more on Mala here

As palpable expectation grows around the final output from Will Holland’s latest collaborative project with his Combo Barbaro (name check…Alfredito Linares, Nidia Gongora, Freddy Colorado, Arthur Verocai, Joao Comanche Gomes and Malcolm Catto); the industrious crew at Mochilla follow on from their Timeless Series of concerts and the release of the Suite For Ma Dukes EP by announcing a new movie production with Sonido del Valle.

‘Tradition In Transition – A Postcard From Cali’ was shot in the Colombian locales of Cali and Buenaventura, documenting the sights, sounds and studio sessions of Quantic’s new album forthcoming on Tru Thoughts. Peep the trailer below…This is going to be huge!

Tradition In Transition – A Postcard From Cali (Trailer)

Tradition in Transition: A Postcard from Cali (TRAILER) from Quantic on Vimeo.

Quantic and his Combo Bárbaro

Mochilla

Brian Cross “Working in L.A.”  (powerHouse Books)

Just as Arrested Development’s joyous anthem ‘Everyday People’ is synonymous with unity, equality and community furtherment in early ‘90s hip-hop, the photo essays of Brian Cross (B+) have been an ever present visual document of the artform and its associated cultures over the last 18 years. Pursuing his passion for music, B+ has opened up the window on a world of off-the-radar scenes (go check ‘It’s Not About A Salary’), curated unbelievable music projects (remember Keepintime?), preserved dying elements once so important to “the scene” (‘Record Dealers’) and more  recently provided iconic images of J. Yancey’s funeral.

In a new project, B+ has been asked by fellow West Coast Americans Dickies to create a portfolio of images depicting the stories of some of L.A.’s hard grafting everyday people.  From a taco vendor dreaming of a pro-skate deal, to the dockworker who wants to present TV shows, this is the story of L.A.’s industrious heartbeat. It’s an invitation to step into the world of its diverse inhabitants, where B+ presents them candidly, allowing heartening engagement to hold sway over sickening, lacquered production values. So, sing it people… “I – I – am – everyday -people.”

Working in L.A. website

With his ‘One Eye Open’ EP dropping later this week and ‘The Strange Dreams Of Paul White’ album scheduled for next month, Mr. White serves it with a mix for FACT magazine. Revealing influence vibes and unreleased productions from the One-Handed Music prog-beat don…Snaffle it at FACT