Awesome Free Stuff: Central Services & Frank Ocean

I'm not going to say much about either of these beyond the fact that you should download them immediately! They are incredible records with twisted takes on soul and R&B. Central Services is El-P and the late Camu Tao, and Camu is actually singing for the most part throughout the album. Frank Ocean is a member of OFWGKTA and also an in demand songwriter for hire, and his album was supposed to come out on Island Def Jam but he put it online himself because he was sick of the label jerking him around. These are honest records that sell themselves on how good they are, so get both of these and you've got some interesting stuff to listen to for the weekend. As for me, I'm working on the monthly mixtape, getting songs together for the next Early Nineties Nightmares comp (probably appearing in May, and this will be the best one yet!) and hunting for an awful single Flavor Flav put out in the mid-nineties. Also, anyone in Ohio have the capabilities to update the firmware on a hacked Xbox 360? Do you think you might be able to lend me your services? Don't tell Microsoft!




Central Services - Forever Frozen In Television Time

01 We Do The Work, You Do The Pleasure
02 What God Should Do
03 Submarine
04 Fuck Me
05 Speak In Tongues
06 I Want To Work For The Government
07 I Need A New Drug
08 Oxycontin

Make sure you hit the official Def Jux page for other free downloads and stuff, but also stop by the page dedicated to Camu Tao's King Of Hearts, a collection of recordings he was working on prior to his death.





Frank Ocean - nostalgia,ULTRA.

01 Street Fighter
02 Strawberry Swing
03 Novacane
04 We All Try
05 Bitches Talkin'
06 Songs For Women
07 Lovecrimes
08 Goldeneye
09 There Will Be Tears
10 Swim Good
11 Dust
12 American Wedding
13 Soul Calibur
14 Nature Feels


Also, make sure you visit Frank's tumblr account and the official OFWGKTA site. There are a ton of free albums on there for download and they're awesome! Can't wait for Tyler's Goblin to drop!

Oh yeah, one more thing, the image above for Frank's album was resized by me and isn't included in the download, so if you want a copy of the image that appears to be sized correctly you can grab that one.

November 2010 Mixtape: Stupid, Stupid, Stupid

So the dirty version of Kanye West's new album finally leaked and it's amazing! I know, everyone is shocked that I like Kanye, but why is that so strange? I love all kinds of music, after all, that's what this site is more or less based on. Anyway, what is really interesting about all this is that the Kanye online fanbase has been hogwild with a number theories about the album's initial leak at the beginning of the week. That initial leak was a clean edit of the album, and there was a lot of speculation that it wasn't the finished version of the album because one curse was still audible, although that happens in clean edits all the time. The other thing a lot of people are going to start saying is that the clean edit isn't final because the mix is slightly different from the dirty version of the album, but that's nothing shocking because a lot of clean edits are made from new mixes leaving those versions notably different and unique. The craziest thing people are saying is that Kanye leaked the clean version himself, supposedly explaining why he didn't freak out about it. Why should he freak out? Who buys clean edits? Will the leak really affect his sales? Do leaks REALLY affect sales? Why stream albums for free in good quality when it's not terribly difficult to rip those streams? Despite the general claim that leaks hurt record sales, which I'm certain holds some water, the leak of good music often boosts interest in the album and makes people want to pony up their hard earned money for the finished product, especially when the finished product features as many bonus tracks and ridiculous features as the Kanye album will, none of which are featured in any version of the album that has leaked. So why is a leak bad? If your album doesn't leak three or four months prior to release why worry? Most major releases leak a week or two ahead of release, that is unless they're self-released, so what's the big deal.

Anyway, in Kanye's defense, as much of a loose cannon as he seems to be sometimes, I still say the guy is mourning the loss of his mother and the end of his last meaningful relationship, a topic that comes up throughout the album. Sometimes I'm more convinced that the guy is a PR genius and much of his so-called craziness is simply crafty marketing. He may be out there, but I have to give the guy a lot of credit and I'm always fascinated to see what his next move is. The new album is, in my humble opinion, one of the best hip-hop albums in the last ten years. You could even call it progressive hip-hop. If you're remotely interested, it's totally worth checking out, but that's just my two cents.

Anyway, I started making this mixtape last week, wanting to make a goofy, seventies and eighties mix. Every version really sucked and felt wrong, so I stuck it on the back burner, but while looking for a CD with some rare remixes and b-sides (Ken Andrews' Soluble Words single as ON. Sorry, didn't find it yet.) I started looking through a pile of discs that I've had set aside for a while for potential posts. There was a lot of really good stuff in there I hadn't listened to in a while so I made a quick mix for myself. I liked it so much I adapted it and turned it into this month's mix. In fact, I had so many additional tracks left over that I couldn't fit in an eighty minute mix that I included some of them as an additional download for anyone interested. So, I hope you enjoy this month's mix, although there might be another one shared before the end of the month, although that one is special for different reasons.


November 2010 Mixtape: Stupid, Stupid, Stupid

01 INTRO
This snippet is from a film named Hot Tomorrows. Props to MySpleen.

02 Meices - Wow
I heard this sometime in the mid-nineties and thought this rocked so hard! I bought the album but was sadly underwhelmed. This track still rocks though. Love the horns.

03 Meja - How Crazy Are You?
This is kind of me and my girlfriend's song. I found out about it by seeing the trailer for Dead Or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball. I finally found a copy of the US release of Meja's album with this song, only to find that it was SO BRIGHT AND POPPY it was almost unbearable! It's not at all bad, but it's WAY TOO BRIGHT! Still though, this song is amazing! This is probably the theme song in the anime version of my life.

04 Dana Bryant - Wishing From The Top
I heard this while djing in college and was thoroughly transfixed. Dana Bryant is a stunning beauty with the voice of an old soul singer, but she doesn't sing, she's more or less a spoken word performance artist, and her sole album, for which this is title cut, is absolutely insane. I'm probably going to have to post it here eventually because I've never run into anyone who remembers it or has heard it. This track is co-written by Speech of Arrested Development fame.

05 S.A. Smash - The Harvest
From the unreleased, second S.A. Smash album, this El-P produced banger only saw release on a 2005 Def Jux comp meant to tease listeners about forthcoming releases. This makes me miss Camu Tao even more. R.I.P. Camu.

06 Howlin' Maggie - Alcohol
Howlin' Maggie were Harold Chichester's band. They're from Columbus, Ohio and Chichester was also a founding member of The Twilight Singers. This is from their 96 album, Honeysuckle Strange. Great, slept on rock from a crazy dude from Ohio.

07 Jill Jones - The Ground You Walk On
This was produced by Nile Rodgers and appeared on the Earth Girls Are Easy soundtrack, and yes, it is the same Jill Jones so many of you know and love from Prince's circle of ex-friends. Not nearly as incredible as anything she did with Prince, but still a great tune. So nice to hear Jill just singing beautifully.

08 Space Monkeys - Sugar Cane
I used to work as a customer service rep for May Company and later also as a fraud analyst for them too. I saw the video for this song on MTV and had to go running to buy it after one of my first paychecks. The album was a bit disappointing, but it's gotten better with age. This song is still bouncy as hell. I remember the video as being very cool, and while I don't know if it still lives up to it's hype, it's probably worth looking up on youtube.

09 Marley Marl - Marley Marl Scratch (feat. MC Shan)
Awesome track! I got this off egotrip's The Big Playback comp and it's been a favorite ever since. Shan's flow is classic old school. LOVIN' IT!

10 Esthero - Breath From Another (Orpheus Floating Mix by Charlie Clouser)
Esthero's first album, Breath From Another, is ridiculously good, but the two singles they released, the title cut and Heaven Sent, were my least two favorite tracks on the album. They never did much to Heaven Sent to improve it, at least in my opinion, but they got Charlie Clouser or White Zombie and Nine Inch Nails fame and DJ Krust from the Reprazent crew to provide great mixes for Breath. This mix is a stomper and it's a long one too. Clouser always turns in a good production. I've gotta check out his work with Snake River Conspiracy eventually.

11 Boom Boom Satellites - 4 A Moment Of Silence
BBS were hyped as the Japanese masters of drum n' bass, but hype was the operative word. Don't get me wrong, they're good at what they do, but they're more about bass heavy club tracks rather than jungle beats. This was a bonus track on their US album, Out Loud, along with another track that was better than just about anything else on the CD.

12 David Arnold - Nobody Does It Better (feat. Aimee Mann)
David Arnold produced a crazy compilation of James Bond song covers with a bunch of his famous friends including the Propellerheads (anyone remember them?), Iggy Pop, Pulp and a bunch of other folks including the wonderful Aimee Mann! She and Jon Brion both contribute to this psych-tinged cover and it's simply wonderful. I knew a guy who was furious that I said this was better than the Carly Simon version. Maybe I'm wrong, as the Carly version is great, but I adore this rendition.

13 STS9 - Better Day/Trinocular (STSDevine Remix by Richard Devine)
Richard Devine is getting married this weekend! Congratulations Richard! I don't know what you'll be playing at your reception, but I'm assuming it won't be this, although it's a beautiful remix. Again, this would be part of the soundtrack to the anime version of my life. This is music to relax and dream to.

14 Ingrid Chavez - Hippy Blood (Funky House Edit by Paisley Park)
Miss David Sylvian is also a member of Prince's circle of ex-friends, and this is from her thoroughly under-promoted album on Prince's old label, Paisley Park. This remix is credited to Paisley Park which is generally a euphemism for Prince, although I don't believe he was necessarily responsible for this mix. Keith Cohen maybe? I don't know, but listen to it and you'll know what I'm talking about. I'll have to post Ingrid's album eventually, although it's got a lot less to do with Prince than most might think.

15 Daphne & Celeste - U.G.L.Y.
This is a candidate for stupidest song ever. This was on the soundtrack for Bring It On, certainly a reason to expect anything other than greatness, but this is amazing for so many reasons, the most important being how incredibly stupid it is. SO STUPID!!!!!

16 Mousse T. vs. Hot 'N' Juicy - Horny
This is a runner up for stupidest song ever. I knew a girl who had spent the summer in the UK in the mid-nineties who insisted this song was a huge hit. Maybe? Probably? Whatever, it's insane.

17 Two Nice Girls - Cotton Crown
I don't know much about Two Nice Girls other than they were four lesbian women (as opposed to lesbian men?) that made country-twinged music. This is from an EP of theirs named Like A Version and five of it's six songs are covers. I will have to post it here eventually because it's a great record. This cover of Sonic Youth is absolutely wonderful!

18 Ultimate Force - I'm Not Playing
Another track from the amazing egotrip compilation mentioned earlier. Last night I wrote that I'd tell the story behind it later, and that's what I'm about to do, quoting directly from the liner notes to egotrip's The Big Playback, but first let me note that this track was also used in Cut Chemist and DJ Shadow's original Brainfreeze mix. And on with the quote:

"Comprised of vocalist Master Rob and DJ Diamond D, the Bronx duo Ultimate Force signed to Jazzy Jay's Strong City label and released it's only single, I'm Not Playing, in 1989. Though the track's blistering guitar licks (culled from Albert King's Cold Feet) provoked immediate headnodding responses upon its release, the group's debut did not arrive without some complication. Diamond's partner had adopted the emcee name Master Rob regardless of the fact that the better known Master Rob (of old school legends the Fantastic Five) was still very much on the scene in the Bronx and, in fact, signed to Strong City as well! A Jazzy Jay-mediated meeting of the Robs was set up and it was eventually somehow decided that the two would both remain Masters of their respective domains. For Ultimate Force, however, Strong City's failure to withstand some commercial bricks doomed its future. The pair split, but Diamond wound up shining when he began working more closely with some fellow Forest Projects-raised friends, Lord Finesse and Showbiz, and let his fingers do the Diggin' In The Crates."

All credit for those details goes to "Chairman" Jefferson Mao of egotrip!

19 OUTRO
This is the first minute or so of an insane video I saw the other day. If you wanna see it, go here. I'm assuming this guy is for real, although who the hell knows these days.


Stupid Bonus Tracks

01 Boom Boom Satellites - Oneness
I was so pumped about this track for a long time. IT'S SO FRICKIN' LOUD!

02 Jungle Brothers - 718 KIT
From the soundtrack to Livin' Large. Remember that movie? Neither do I. By the way, I got a funny e-mail the other day from a guy threatening to leak Crazy Wisdom Masters. The only thing I could say was "uh, I'm not in the band, but you probably shouldn't leak it".

03 Karyn White - Romantic (Single Mix)
Ms. White was married to Terry Lewis of Flyte Tyme productions and The Time. Sometimes it seems like I can never avoid a Prince connection.

04 Esthero - Breath From Another (DJ Krush Sitting On Chrome Mix)
Krush's mix is ten minutes long and incredibly dark. AWESOME!!!

05 Boom Boom Satellites - Dub Me Crazy Ver. 02
More BBS. This track is very heavy. Go ahead, play this in your card at loud volume. I DARE YOU!



By the way, the photo in this post is from my college photography days when I used an actual, non-digital camera! Every once in a while I find a pile of crappy photos in a box and am astounded by how totally awful or bizarre they are. I call this one, PORTRAIT OF THE BLOGGER AS A YOUNG AND NAIVE FRAUD ANALYST. That photo, and by that I mean the whole image, is about twelve or thirteen years old now. Everyone always said I looked so young. I hated it, but at least I had more hair on my head then.