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Indigo Jam Unit

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July 19, 2012
2012, New Music
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It’s been awhile since I have posted on any new jazz albums or groups…until now! I would like to introduce you to Indigo Jam Unit. Formed in Osaka, Japan, in 2005, these guys have been dropping great releases for awhile.  The unit consists of Yoshichika Tarue (piano), Katsuhiko Sasai (double bass), Isao Wasano (percussion & drums), and Takehiro Shimizu (drums). The unit initially started out as a trio and then added Shimizu to the drum line up before their first album, DEMONSTRATION (February 2006). Since this first album, the quartet has released five LP’s, an album remixing some of Common’s songs with his original verses over their jams, and a cover album, Rose. 

This track is from the album, Re:Common , and reworks his song ‘Come Close’. Indigo Jam Units unique sound comes from the combination of all four members. Tarue’s melodic piano and Sasai’s driven bassline are integral to each track with the two artists pairing their instruments perfectly. What sets Indigo Jam Unit’s apart, is the use of two drummers. With Shimizu and Wasano working together to create an explosive rhythm that is prominent throughout each track.

The unit’s most recent release was the album, Independent, and should be checked out by anyone who enjoys complex drumlines and if you want to check out a band that can meld their unique sounds flawlessly. Even more impressive, is the bands devotion to uphold their ideal of being ‘live musicians’. The unit performs only single takes for every song that they put onto a record. I strongly urge you to explore their music and with some easy google searching you can find album downloads. Lastly, check out their awesome cover of ‘Funkier Than a Mosquito’s Tweeter’ by Nina Simone

 

Boeboe Guest Mix For The Astral Plane

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July 19, 2012
2012, Mixes, New Music
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Since the inception of this blog, our foremost goal has been to display the music we love (and hope you love) in a tasteful, uninhibited fashion. To that point, I believe we’ve been fairly successful. Our secondary goal has been to bring you original content in the form of interviews, album reviews and most recently, our Mixes From The Astral Plane series. Today, we bring you a new form of original content: Guest Mixes. Whereas Mixes From The Astral Plane is meant to be a sort of overview of what we’re loving on at the moment, Guest Mixes will highlight the work of our favorite artists, one at a time.

For our first ever Guest Mix, we’ve enlisted the man we called the “Dutch trap luminary” last month, Boeboe. As the wheat separates from the chaff in the trap game, Boeboe has emerged with an impressive grasp of hip hop, as well as the strand of bass heavy British house music championed by the likes of Julio Bashmore, XXXY and Eats Everything. Last month’s Act Stupid EP on Sabacan Records exhibited Boeboe’s mastery of the low end and it doesn’t look like he’ll stop anytime soon. Without further ado, we present to you Boeboe’s Guest Mix.

Tracklist

1. Subp Yao – Law of The Jungle
2. A Chal – Paid in Full
3. Boeboe – Breakdown
4. SirOJ – Untitled (Exclusive) (forthcoming on 22Tracks)
5. LOL Boys – Flaunt It (Remix)
6. LZRKMMNDR – Big Ass Titties (Subp Yao Remix)
7. UZ x CRNKN – Booty 2 The Ground
8. Boeboe – Low Key
9. Boeboe – Green Component
10. +Verb – RTS
11. Boeboe – King (WIP)
12. Myrryrs – Fantom Doze
13. Baauer – My Nose

Viette Stays Hot With New Tracks, Mix

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July 18, 2012
Mixes, New Music
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What can we say about Viette that we haven’t already said? Our favorite White Zinfandel-loving Wisconsinite has been on a tear lately. He literally lit Soundcloud on fire. It happened. I was there. He’s also got a brand spanking new Facebook page so give him a holla. He works hard. Not only has he released two exquisite new bangers in the last days alone, but yesterday, he was featured in 110BPM’s guest mix series. Doin’ big thangs. Check the mix below and hit his Soundcloud for the full scoop.

New LOL Boys – “Changes”

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July 16, 2012
New Music
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LOL Boys have wrangled the contemporary interweb/Soundcloud like none other over the past year or so. From the name to the artwork to the ever-changing sound, the duo have toed the line between gimmick and art with an impressive consistency. Despite this, the quality of Jerome and Sam’s releases have always seemed to lag behind their interminable internet presence. That all ends with “Changes”. Putting the tried and true methods of UK Bass music against timeless jazz stylings could go horribly wrong in the wrong hands, but Jerome and Markus, with the help of vocalist Heart Streets, blow the combination out of the water. “Changes” is simply a beautiful composition. The Changes EP drops tomorrow on Friends of Friends. Stream below.

Curren$y and Harry Fraud As Tubbs And Crockett

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July 15, 2012
New Music
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Cigarette Boats follows a simple script; Spitta plays Tubbs and Fraud gives best Crockett impersonation. The scene set is distinctly Miami and the duo makes no attempt at hiding it. The title and Fraud’s overtly 80’s indebted beats make that clear enough. Spitta inhabits a space he’s comfortable enough with on the EP. Personal wealth, classic cars, and rollin’ up are the  topics he’s discussed ad infinitum, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Listening to Curren$y usually gives me a sense of comfort. I know exactly what I’m getting, but still end up pleasantly engaged by a few dozen pop culture references and punchlines. Fraud must have spent hours engorging himself on those low down shots of Testarossa’s in Vice while in the studio. He might of done the 80’s Miami sound better than anyone since… well 1980’s Miami. Cigarette Boats is free. It’s also Spitta’s most engrossing release since Covert Coup. Stream and download below.

Album Review: Frank Ocean’s Channel Orange

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July 12, 2012
2012, Album Reviews, New Music
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All too often, and for far too long, musicians’ work has been associated with and affected by the artists’ personal lives; it has become a fact of the industry that fans not only absorb an artist’s music, but that they become acquainted with the artist as a human being as well, for better or for worse. Frank Ocean has been the subject a lot of Internet buzz over the past few weeks, and sadly, until Tuesday, very little of it had anything to do with the music he makes. Sexual orientation has no effect whatsoever on musical ability or songwriting talent; that being said, countless reviews of Frank Ocean’s superb new album, Channel Orange, seem focused solely upon attempting to tie various lyrics to alleged homosexual feelings or actions. That type of review is both useless and ridiculous, in light of the quality and effort so clearly apparent within this project.

Channel Orange would have been the same album whether or not Ocean had chosen to discuss his sexual orientation publicly the week before its release. The experiences he describes in the album had already passed, the lyrics had all been written, the verses recorded. Although we at The Astral Plane were overjoyed to see a respected and revered artist like Ocean publicly come out despite the potential for backlash, the blogosphere’s reactions to this announcement (positive OR negative) play no role whatsoever in the musical entity that is Channel Orange. It is rather useless to spend time either congratulating or criticizing Ocean’s lifestyle, and frankly I’m sick of reading track-by-track reviews of this album that seem intent upon pointing out the number of times per song where Ocean says “he” instead of “she,” as if attempting to decide upon the “gayest” song of the album. It’s exhausting to see so many people attempting to analyze the personal life of an individual they have never met in what should be a review of the music.

The most beautiful aspect of this project, and the thing so many bloggers seem to be missing as they scrutinize Frank Ocean’s sexuality in loose or imagined relation to the lyrics in Channel Orange, is the fact that Ocean has created a multifaceted and comprehensive portrait of love in this album. This is not love as viewed through the eyes of any one individual; instead, it is love as a concept, viewed critically and with trepidation and awe. This album is a 17-track rumination on the many flavors of fondness and affection. Read the track-by-track review after the jump.

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My TeamSupreme Stay Clean, The Interview

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July 11, 2012
2012, Interviews, New Music
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A beat cypher, what a novel idea. Could be interesting. Those were my first thoughts when a friend mentioned TeamSupreme to me. It sounded vaguely enticing, but an unrealistic novelty in reality. 12 producers using the same two samples and contributing one minute of beat action? No way that could work. If conducted by the wrong people, I figured it would be an utter disaster. Well what the fuck do I know? Directed by Dane (The Great Dane) and Preston (of Virtual Boy), TeamSupreme has been churning out their unique “cyphers” since April and have garnered respect from across the hip hop and electronic music spectrums. With a monthly spot at Los Angeles’ La Cita in place and a stable of producers ranging from (DJ) Nobody to Boreta of The Glitch Mob contributing to the weekly volumes. We wanted to find out more about the process behind TeamSupreme so we shot some emails back and forth with Dane and Preston. Here are the results. Can’t wait for Volume 3,000 to drop.

Give us a play by play of how TeamSupreme was consummated?

Dane: Me and Preston were hanging out and we decided to have a little unofficial project to make a beat in an hour at the same BPM with the same vocal sample, “My team supreme, stay clean” (a Biggie quote).  After we finished up we put them back to back and thought it would be cool to try it on a bigger scale with more producers. That first little project turned into TeamSupreme Vol. 1.

Who all is involved with TeamSupreme at this point? Is everyone located in LA?

Dane: We started with just our close producer friends mostly in LA or Orange County, but now we have people sending in beats from NY, Colorado, Portland and more.

Preston: Our usual suspects consists of Papi, King Henry, Great Dane, Preston James, Djemba Djemba, Fuzz, Kloud, DJ Nobody, Dot, ELOS, Kenny Segal, Nalepa, Snorlax and Colta. We’ve also had many guests including Boreta of The Glitch Mob and Kendo of Two Fresh.

Hit the jump for the full interview…

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New ANGO – “Paralyzed”

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July 11, 2012
New Music
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The LuckyMe seal of approval is as close to a guarantee as there is in the electronic music sphere. I don’t need to get into the label’s pedigree to illustrate this point. ANGO aka Andrew Gordon was born in Halifax (but now resides in Montreal) and is among the overflowing pool of up and coming Canucks. Gordon sings, and mans the drum machine, keyboard and electric bass for an impressive command of his synth oriented sound. “Paralyzed” is off of ANGO’s upcoming Serpentine mixtape, due on July 17 via LuckyMe. Some true to form future R&B shit right here. Stream below and download here.

The Gaslamp Killer Debuts New Single, Album Dropping In September

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July 11, 2012
New Music
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Since its inception around the mid aughts, the Los Angeles beat scene has turned out dozens of stars, garnering acclaim across the globe.  The residents of Low End Theory spend weeks at a time traveling and performing in locales as far-flung as Japan. Similar scenes have popped up in just about every city in the US spawning a whole new generation of talented DJ’s and producers. Flying Lotus is generally (and rightfully) credited as the breakout star, but another man, born William Bensussen, has had as much or more of a role in the promulgation of the City of Angels’ distinct sound. That’s right, the Mother.Fucking.Gaslamp.Killer. Known for his unparalleled crate digging, inexhaustible energy and the  sheer number of angles his hair can point simultaneously, GLK is one of the most visible members of LA’s music community. Despite this, his production skills are often overlooked. As of September 18, that trend will surely end. That’s the day Bensussen’s debut full length, the aptly titled Breakthrough, will smack everyone who’s anyone who’s anything across the face like a cold fish. September is a long ways away so the Killer let loose the first single from the LP for all the devout followers of the church of GLK. Head over to Pitchfork to stream the Miguel Atwood-Ferguson assisted track, which will hopefully be out in some other incantation in the near future, and start the countdown to September 18.