Digable Planets Live @ Neumos, Seattle.

Performing Where I'm From (Auhral G Ride mix). Now *that* is MCing. Love C Knowledge's thoughts on music in the interview.

week in music

Dedicated - on the b-side to Dial 7: Axioms of Creamy Spies (Pendulum EMI, 1995)

The memory of a 16-year old me going into a record shop specialising in dance music, in the North Laines Brighton and being sold this record is sacred. Lyrically, a fond farewell.

SXSW clip and interview

Is anyone at SXSW? Report! Pleeeze. thanks to TastyKeish and Randam Acts of Music...

BLACK UP

New album is called BLACK UP and it's coming 31st May!!! The whole net is aflame with the response to the track previewed:



And I found a tracklisting:

Disc 1
1 free press and curl
2 An echo from the hosts that profess infinitum
3 Are you… Can you… Were you? (Felt)
4 A treatease dedicated to The Avian Airess from North East Nubis (1000 questions, 1 answer)
5 Youlogy
6 Endeavors for Never (The last time we spoke you said you were not here. I saw you though.)
7 Recollections of the wraith
8 The King’s new clothes were made by his own hands
9 yeah you
10 Swerve... the reeping of all that is worthwhile (Noir not withstanding)

(Produced by Knife Knights.plcr)

Does that mean there'll be a disc 2? That's the question. But like I said when I spoke with Ish almost a year ago he said soemthing about a Shabazz film. Now is that going to be released with the LP? Aren't those track names stunning? Who do you think you are? But as the music tells us, this will be no normal release. Shabazz is pushing it out there as no one else has even dreamed in every possible way. Honestly I am not sure dude is even human any more. The shit he's coming up with, if you'll listen to the new track, is just too much. I'm dumbstruck. How can the apocalypse sound so... good? Or should I say: we are all going to feel this album deep in our bones just as we can feel the trouble in the air of planet earth circa 2011. Shabazz Palaces is the zeitgeist. Still reeling from the "Echo" but what did you all think of it?? PS if you can get to SXSW in Austin Texas later this week then do so, for Shabazz will be playing two sets:

Weekly Tune

Directed by one of the best new directors Kahlil Joseph, who also did the Belhaven Meridian video. You've all heard and loved this tune (what a voice) but perhaps there are some who haven't seen the beautiful video:

Aloe Blacc - I Need a Dollar (2010, Stones Throw Recordings)

Noir Night Ship - reviews

'Shabazz Palaces and TheeSatisfaction's show at Neumos two weeks ago. A very cool, very black evening. I've never heard of a show like this before but nothing surprises me any more when it comes to freshness from The Source which is definitely what SP and TheeSat are connected to. As well as playing their music they made a chat show where Ish was this corny host and interviewed the ladies of TheeSat. It made me laugh reading that he asked "So... psychedelic space rap. How did you come up with that?" The pastiche of the clueless journalist armed with his abstract labels which he sticks on to the art at arm's length, not needing to get into the messy business of interacting with. Imagine if you made some music and then every time for the next twenty years that you came out with new stuff, you had to listen to the words "jazz rap" or "boho hip hop"?! Now as the wiser veteran, it's like he's baptising his spiritual children into the freakish world of the music industry. It's just too cool to comprehend. Anyway:
Trent Moorman penned a compact but artistic paragraph for The Stranger's music blog called "Line Out".

Joe Gustav from Seattle Show Gal website wrote a nice piece with an oddly cynical aftertaste

The excellent Eric Grandy from Seattle Weekly hits the spot again with his review, which concludes rightly that "they're only just warming up..."!

The Stranger's Line Out music blog also had Jason Baxter on the case, and his write up is also worthy of your attention.

Proving that there were very few non-journos in the crowd, Mike Ramos of the wonderfully named guerillacandy.com ruminated on the night, saying much the same as everyone else: it was astounding, next-level shit.

Finally, LB of Seattle Subsonic gives us another rave review, highlighting the contribution of TheeSat LB says the answer to a question about why Palaces is pluralised was laughed off on the night but in Lazaro's exclusive message to the Ishmaelites Weblog, he gives the lowdown on the band's name.

Photo galleries come courtesy of Alex Crick and Lucas Anderson.
The wicker chair is a reference to a famous Black Panther photo, which is another thing I've learned from all this Seattle music press I'm imbibing recently (good- introduced me to loads of good music)

And finally, check out Thee Satisfaction's amazing blog Black Weirdo for around twenty different promo posters they made for the event, one of which is this: