Since september 2009 i had a Shafiq podcast running in my 'everywhere-where-i'm going' playlist. Untill today i didn't checked out his last year's debut Album En' A-Free-Ka, dunno why, but now that i've check it out i'm a fan.
Debut album means not he's not new to the scene, because he most known for his productions behind Erykah Badu and the Sa-Ra creative Partners collective. As a third of the Sa-Ra Creative Partners, Shafiq Husayn has produced some of the most acclaimed nu-soul spirit music of recent times, lending his sought-after cosmic vision to albums from John Legend, Erykah Badu and even Ice T.
Now striding out on his own for a solo production - 'Shafi En' A-Free-Ka' - he can set the immediate commercial pressures of the trio aside for an album of free-spirited astral journeying, taking underground MC legend Count Bass D, vocalist Bilal Oliver and members of Build An Ark and Sa-Ra along for the experience. Shafiq takes a lot of cues from Sun-Ra over the course of the album, guiding him through seventeen tracks of jazz taught, soul soaked and hiphop bounced sounds using a huge array of engineers, players and like-minded cats to achieve his vision. It's arranged with the sense of a classic studio album in the tradition of Stevie Wonder or Sun-Ra, benefitting from the bristling ebullience of the assembled cast but never losing its cohesion or joyful theme, making it a pleasure to witness.
The psyched West Coast pop harmonies of 'Major Heavy' features Sly Stone sound-alike Sonny Coates duetting with Count Bass D, while Om'Mas Keith and Stephen "Thundercat" Bruner make one of the highlights on 'Changes' with head swirling keys and wicked broken beat futurism. A highly recommended set to anyone who fell in love with 'The 4th World' or yearns for more Carlos Niño!
It's a sumblime mixture of afrobeat, electronica, funk, hip hop, psychidelica and soul.
Enough words let the music do the talking, check this one out!!
Producer, DJ, A&R man, label boss, radio presenter and occasional painter DJ Vadim dusts off a small segment of his record collection and steers us through his musical influences including tracks from Marcos Valle, Positive Force and Stevie Wonder.
01: 80s Ladies - Turned On To You - Music of Life 02: Stevie Wonder - Sir Duke - Motown 03: James Brown - Mind Power - Polydo 04: Massive Attack - Unfinished Sympathy - Wild Bunch Records 05: Positive Force - We Got The Funk - Turbo 06: Marcos Valle - Batucada Surgiu - Odeon Fonografica 07: Metro Area - Strut - Environ 08: The Roots - Web - Geffen 09: Masters At Work - In Time - MAW Records 10: Fat Freddy's Drop - Wandering Eye - Kartel Creative
Round 2 sees the indelible Vadim shine a light on some of his contemporaries, bringing together the tracks he'd wantonly die to from Portishead, D'Angleo, Erykah Badu with some other tracks he adores.
01: Portishead - Roads - Go Beat 02: Flying Lotus - 1983 - Plug Research 03: Roots Manuva - Juggle Tings Proper - Big Dada 04: Max Romeo - Tacko - United Artists Records 05: Reggie Steppa - Drum Pan Sound - Steelie and Clevie 06: Dennis Alcapone - Cassius Clay - Trojan 07: D'Angelo - The Line - EMI 08: Erykah Badu - Kiss Me on My Neck - Motown 09: KRS1 - MCs Act Like They Don't Know - Jive 10: Mos Def & Talib Kweli - Body Rock - Rawkus 11: A Tribe Called Quest - Busta's Lament - Jive
I've have been listening to these 2 podcast for a couple of weeks now because i really dig the selection, timeless and inspiring!
Monkey Maffia was 1 half of the Wighnomy Borthers together with Robag Whrume, they stopped dj'ing as a duo at he end of 2009. Monkey Maffia is best known for his record store Fatplastics in Jena, hometown of Freude Am Tanzen, and his dj skills, while Robag was more the producer of the Wighnomy Brothers project.
This 2 hour podcast is one of my favorites atm because it has that nice & warm, but raw (vinyl) funky groove going on, one that keeps you shuffling on the dancefloor.
01. The Zohar - All the familly - Quintessentials 02. DJ Aakmael - Headknod (Bugged Mixx) - Earthrumental music 03. Jagged - Hollywood - Quintessentials 04. Wbeeza - All those beats - Third ear 05. Homewreckers - Chicago Urban Blues - Circus Company 06. Soulphiction pres. Missing Linkx - Who to call - Philpot 07. Oliver Markreich - Garedu - Orphik 08. Paul Frick - The camouflage - Klamauk 09. Paul Johnson - Welcome to the warehouse - Warehouse 10. unknown - All inn limited 01 Rec. 11. Andrea Festa - The sound of lugano (Mike Dunn Remix) - AF 12. Levon Vincent - Deeper - Novel sound 13. You and me - It's just - Polymorph 14. Kaspar - The pressure - Bass culture 15. Frederico Molinari - Party faktor - Tsuba 16. unknown - El gigante - Dai 17. Culos de song - The fallen siren - Mule musiq 18. Philogresz - Vie - Ware 19. Taron-Trekka - Mr. no (where is the magic) - Freude-am-Tanzen 48 20. Tevo Howard - Move - Hour house is your rush 21. Kadebostan - Caracas soul - Freude-am-Tanzen 32 22. Good guy Mikesh & Filburt - Milk & honey - Liebe Detail spezial 23. Am Ende - kommt die Rille
