Back To Save The Universe
A Hip Hop Classic, a cloudbusting compilation and the master of space
It’s a public holiday here in the UK, which I’m very grateful for. I’ve spent the last week in Paris and Berlin for work and the combination of travel and wall-to-wall meetings is an exhausting one. I’m definitely glad to have a day of relative rest before diving back into things tomorrow. It also gives me a chance to belatedly get another newsletter out, something I’ll hopefully be able to get back to a more regular schedule now that I’m home.
As you’ll read below I managed to get a good amount of record shopping in between the work meetings, and picked up some great records which I’ll no doubt write about in the coming weeks. The images above are from Bikini Waxx, Soultrade & Sound Metaphors in Berlin, and Superfly, Heartbeat & Betino’s in Paris. All are worth a visit if you find yourself nearby.
As some of you may have noticed I add in an archive post from my original listening project, as documented in my zine. This week I included a post about the Jai Paul album Bait Ones - which coincidentally was finally released on vinyl a week or so ago. It was a reminder of what an influential and brilliant piece of work it is, regardless of the controversy around it’s initial release. Fingers crossed I get to see some of it performed live this summer.
Finally, Londoners can catch me DJing a few times this month. This Friday I’ll be at The Standard in Kings Cross; two weeks later I’ll be at Tola with Glade Marie and finally at the end of the month I’ll be going B2B with Kaidi Tatham at the brilliant Cross The Tracks in Brockwell Park. Come say hi if you make it down.
April 14th • Common - Be
As a music fan there are some records that I love so much that other offerings from the artist involved rarely get an outing. I'll sometimes try to listen to other records by the artist, but all they do is remind me that I want to listen to my favourite.Â
Common has two of these albums in his back catalogue. Like Water For Chocolate and Electric Circus are among my most-played records and are close to perfection, albeit in quite different ways. Be came out in 2005 as the follow up to that 1-2 punch, and was always going to struggle in comparison in my eyes. Of course there's a quirk here, in that most of the hip hop world saw things quite differently; Electric… was the mis-step and Be the triumphant return to form (or hip hop conformity, depending on your outlook).
Commercially this was a huge hit for Common, after the poor performance of its predecessor. It was also a calculatedly safe bet of a record after the wild experimentation of Electric... Although in recent years Common has softened his opinions on Electric.., at the time he seemed keen to dismiss the record as unfocussed, feeding into the pervading narrative that he'd taken his eye off the ball, with the added lazy misogynistic take that he'd been too influenced by his relationship with Erykah Badu. There was even a theory (that he dispelled) that BE was an acronym for Before Erykah.Â
This backdrop saw Common link with Kanye West; widely seen as the saviour of conscious rap music, with a couple of contributions from Dilla to round out a tight, punchy LP. Listening today I realise that this is the first time in a while that I've checked anything even vaguely Kanye related and it’s an odd experience. The motivated, prodigiously gifted upstart on Be is a million miles away from the alt-right, anti-semitic outrage factory that he has now become. My overwhelming feeling is sadness, and it’s jarring to enjoy this genuinely great record in light of his recent actions.
Perhaps, in time, Electric Circus will be seen as the masterpiece, and Be as the mistake. Possibly not, but it’s a reminder that perspectives can, and often will change over time. You never know what's around the corner...
April 16th • Black Thought and El Michels Affair - Glorious Game
I've been waiting for this one since the moment it was announced and it went straight on the deck as soon as I'd unwrapped the package. It seems as though the last few years have seen Black Thought finally get the credit he deserves as an MC of rare and unmatched ability. The pairing with soul supremo Leon Michels made so much sense and as a fan of both I was intrigued to see how they'd work together.
The curious thing here is that whereas ordinarily an MC collaborating with a live band would be a departure, with Black Thought it is something he's uniquely familiar with. Michels recognised this too, choosing to sample himself and records from his collection, before going back and adding new elements in the studio to create new reinterpretations of his own compositions.
The resulting LP is all killer, no filler, none more so than on The Weather. Inspired by J Dilla's Don't Cry, Thought rides a tempo-changing soul loop to devastating effect - apparently recorded in one take. As well as being a showcase for Thought's flawless flows, it's an interesting departure for Michels too, allowing a musician who is often the 'guy-behind-the-guy' to take centre stage.Â
Michels came through 20+ years ago alongside the likes of The Daptones with what was considered at the time a retro sound; reviving the heavy funk and soul sound of the 60s and 70s. A quarter of a century on and with production credits for the likes of Jay-Z can they still be called retro? I feel Michels and his peers have paid their dues to sit at the vanguard of this sound, and as time goes by the notions of what constitutes a modern or throwback style are increasingly irrelevant. Like Duke Ellington said, 'if it sounds good, it is good'. With this LP Thought and Michels have proved once again that they are very, very good at this glorious game.Â
April 22nd • Once Again We Are The Children Of The Sun - Compiled by Paul Hillery
Seasonal changes have an impact on what I listen to, in a variety of different ways. Sometimes I'll wander downstairs of a morning, look out at a wintery sky and instinctively reach for something to mirror the mood (usually John Martyn). Other times I actively rail against the climate, as if the sounds from my speakers can break the clouds or clear the rain.
This week was a bit of a false dawn, weather wise. Monday was gloriously sunny, and it finally felt as if spring was with us. Unfortunately nature was teasing and the rest of the week returned to grey skies and the near-constant threat of rain.Â
This morning the sun is trying it's best to peek through the white blanket of cloud and in an attempt to aid it's efforts I put on this record that arrived a few days ago. I'd missed the first volume of Paul Hillery's hazy, sun-beckoning compilations, which I think is something I need to fix, as this could not be more within my wheelhouse.Â
Whereas most compilations tend to focus on one style or era, Hillery adopts a much more lyrical approach, hopping across time, genre and tempo with ease. The thread that holds this wide-ranging approach together isn't those usual characteristics; instead it's all about feeling - the tracks are bound by the optimistic view that "we have more to connect us than to divide us."Â
Sonically this takes in outsider folk, dewy-eyed soul and jazz funk, imbued with the sunniest disposition; positivity dripping from every note, chord and lyric. A section of the liner notes captures the mood perfectly: 'Praise be: David Crosby, Terry Callier, Arthur Lee, Brian Wilson, Nick Drake, Bridget St.John, Ian Curtis, Matt Deighton, Ken Kesey and Albert Hoffman.'
So if you're dreaming of brighter days, stick this on the stereo, it will lift your heart and sweeten your soul.
April 23rd • Ahmad Jamal - Inspiration
It's a sign of the times that I only realised it was Record Store Day at about 4pm yesterday, prompting a swift visit to a couple of local spots, Maestro and Steak Records. For 3 consecutive years we released music to mark the occasion but as the years went by it became less viable for all kinds of reasons. Major labels gonna major label I guess, so whilst it's a fun day for fans, it's more of a mixed bag for indie labels.
Anyway, this isn't a complaint post - the central idea behind it is still a good one: record shops are important and we should use them if we love music. I've been trying to make more of an effort to get to my local shops, and in fact all cultural parts of my city. How often do we hear of a closure of a space, be it a bar, club, restaurant, theatre or shop and ruminate on how sad it is that it's gone? And how quickly does that thought move to remembering the last time we visited them? If it's not in the last year then either it wasn't that valuable in the first place, or we aren't doing our part to support these institutions. Of course, changing life circumstances and cost of living issues sometimes make this hard, but if we can participate in culture, then we should.Â
As for this album, it felt fitting to pick up an Ahmad Jamal record given his recent passing. This 1972 compilation on Cadet is a great listen, bringing together so much of what I love about him as an artist. I'm currently listening to a Questlove interview with Bob James in which Quest hails James as the master of texture. The sleevenotes to this record note Jamal's mastery of space and rhythm. These particular attributes of these two greats are what drew hip hop producers to sample them so frequently; the intangible feel that both have in abundance can create magic multiple times over.
May 1st • Rogê - Curyman
​​I spent last week in Berlin and Paris, visiting record labels and music folk for work. It was a great, if exhausting, trip and I managed to make some time to meet with friends and wander round a few record shops in between appointments.Â
My favourite shop, and in fact one of my favourite shops currently open is Superfly Records in Paris. I always find something interesting in there, and if I have the stamina to explore their vast collection of music from across all corners of Africa I'll invariably pick up some unknown treasures. This time I didn't venture into that part of the shop as I already had a small stack of records plucked from more familiar musical waters.
As I took my stash of vinyl to the till I asked the owner what was currently playing. I was enjoying the breezy, guitar-led samba-soul that had been soundtracking my perusal of the racks. He handed me this record from Brazilian singer Rogê, now residing in Los Angeles having growing weary of the political strife of his motherland.Â
Curyman, his first American-made album was produced by Budos Band leader Thomas Brenneck with strings added by the legendary Arthur Verocai in Brazil. It's a joyful and positive record, whose release a month ago coincided with Festa de Iemanjá, an annual Brazilian holiday in honour of the goddess of the sea; an occasion of cleansing and rebirth.Â
I love finding records like this, and I imagine I'll always remember where I discovered it and possibly even the day that unfolded before and after. I'll hopefully recall the other records I picked up that day, including a release on the shop's own label that was handed to me by my good friend Neil and turned out to be just as enchanting as he said it would be. Â
I find a lot of great music online, but there's a particular joy in finding something you didn't know you were looking for, in a specific place at a specific time. It's the magic of music discovery and 37 years after I first bought an album with my own money in a record shop, it's a feeling that never fades.Â
April 21st 2021 • Jai Paul - Leak 04-13 (Bait Ones)
Man I love this album - although depending on your reading of events it’s possibly not really an album at all. For those not familiar, Jai Paul came into the public consciousness in the myspace era - his demo of a mysteriously titled track called BTSTU was a blog favourite just over a decade ago (I today learned that it stands for Back To Save The Universe). A deal with XL Recordings followed, and BTSTU got an official release 10 years ago today.
In April 2013 this collection of demos/songs was released via a Bandcamp page - it’s an odd collection of very raw tracks, and both he and his label denied that it was an official release. If you’re looking for an inside scoop of what happened from a Bandcamp perspective then you’ll be disappointed; this predates my time at the company.
In 2019 the album got an official release as Leak 04-13 (Bait Ones) and Paul laid out how he felt the tracks were leaked - probably from ‘a burned CD that got misplaced’. He released a couple of new tracks too that showed he hadn't lost his touch. I personally don’t know the truth of the various claims and counter-claims about how the music came out. I love the mystery of it, and his idiosyncratic style of handling the music industry means that it’s all totally believable - whichever version of events you side with. It all adds to the story for me - a mutant-rnb-pop genius who has mastered the art of not giving a fuck. More of this please.
As for the tracks themselves, there are more ideas in these 16 tracks than many other artists would get through in a career. Str8 Outta Mumbai is a certified banger and his liberal use of Harry Potter samples still makes me laugh, 8 years down the line. BTSTU is hands-down one of the tracks of the decade - it’s one that will never fail to wobble my head and do that slightly pained-squinty face I do when a beat is that hard. To celebrate 10 years since his first single Paul just set an updated version of his Myspace page live over at BTSTU.com - it’s well worth checking out and reminded me of the unique, eccentric genius that is Jai Paul. Harrow represent!
When I was still a die-hard backpack hip-hop fan (around the time when »Electric Circus« came out), I hated that album, and of course I loved »Be« when it got released. My perspective has definitely changed. I still love »Be«, but »Electric Circus« is way more interesting, innovative and daring. It's kind of the culmination of the Soulquarians era. I don't love all songs on it, and I still feel some of the experiments went wrong, but it's a very important album for Common's career and certainly not a mis-step. Thanks for the reminder, Aly!