i was barely gettin’ pretty women. now i scoop emmy winners like kitty litter.
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Peep this video of LA producer, Exile, as he discusses making beats using samples he lifts from the radio, and freaks a really nice track. Spotted at Kevin Nottingham’s blog.
In Love from Yours Truly on Vimeo.
Apparently taking a page from KFC’s playbook, minus the dancing, izotope has decided to make it rain VST plugins and is giving away their new vinyl processor. Haven’t had a chance to see it in action yet, myself, but if it’s izotope, you know it’s going to be good. Spotted on Alpha-bet’s blog.
In a good idea that I fully intend to jack someday, Dutch producer Nicolay, of Foreign Exchange fame, has decided to run a series of features on his blog entitled Inside the Producer’s Studio. The blogs will, in his own words, provide an indepth look into the process behind his music production while breaking down specific tracks from his catalogue. With the prologue and the first full entry up, this is definitely one that will be going on my RSS reader.
Foreign Exchange – Daykeeper (prod. by Nicolay)
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Today thru Sunday, the Austin Record Convention returns to the Crockett Center. Over 300 dealers pushing over a million records. $5 admission good for tomorrow and Sunday. $25 if you want to show up today too. This is one of my favorite places to find new material to sample. Let’s get it!
Video of 9th Wonder (a.k.a. the Rachel Ray of producers) putting in work on an MPC.
Mama would be so proud. This week, I made my debut appearance on The 54 Reality Show, the video blog of Killeen’s Crew54. G Christ, C HOV and I talk some ish outside of Poise’s video premier party last Friday night. I would never advise anyone to miss a minute of these, but if you want me to show you what top-form hat game is all about, skip to 5:40.
54 Reality Show 2-02 from The 54 Reality Show on Vimeo.
More inauguration follow up from funnyordie.com:
A little DC hip hop for y’all, remixed by Philadelphia producer, Aeon. Peep it, and have a happy hump day.
Jacked from nodfactor, this is a little snippet of an interview with legendary soul music producers, Gamble & Huff. They masterminded The Philadelphia Sound record label, and produced records for some of the most respected artists of the 70′s and early 80′s, names such as Teddy Pendergrass, The Spinners, Phyllis Hyman, The Stylistics, and others.
They talk here about their views on hip hop and R&B producers sampling their tracks, and have a positive outlook toward it. Speaking as someone who has chopped up some of their tracks, I’m glad to hear that they welcome artists bringing new vision to their classic ideas.
Guess I should get off my ass and go make a beat…
I found this at Antone’s yesterday for $4.99. It’s unlikely I would’ve given it a second look, but for the fact that I happened to notice the CTI logo in the lower right corner. My copy was a white label copy, in pretty good shape. The record was dusty, but a quick listen didn’t reveal any skips, and the cover looks fine.
The trombone is not a sexy instrument. Take it from someone who played it in the fourth grade band. It can’t create the acrobatics of wild John Coltrane runs or the piercing tones of a Freddie Hubbard trumpet solo. The need to move the slide back and forth over a long distance to change the pitch makes it much more ponderous than other wind instruments to play, and its smooth tone makes it difficult to sound anything but cool and relaxed. In the ego-driven and virtuoso-heavy world of jazz, then, it is no surprise that trombones do not show up much in the post-big band era. Enter Urbie Green, born in Alabama in 1926. He had a string of albums dating back to the 1950′s, and continued recording into the late 1990′s.
The album is a 1976 release produced by Creed Taylor, the second of Green’s two CTI records in the mid-70′s. It’s a mixture of mid-tempo disco-influenced tracks, haunting sparse pieces, and dirtier funk numbers. The ensemble varied on the tracks, but it usually included 6 or 8 members, mostly standard rhythm instruments, with the odd soprano sax, yazz flute, or harmonica player thrown in. There is a lot of 70′s studio magic used to good effect by Taylor, but the instrumentation itself is all acoustic.
I wouldn’t call any of these tracks standouts in the CTI catalog, mainly due to a lack of interesting solos. Green is clearly talented at his instrument, but superimposing 1950′s west coast jazz riffs on top of 70′s groove-based jazz has limited mileage. It definitely has some sample potential, but it’s destined for laid back sounding tracks. The amorphous tracks with no percussion have a few little runs that could make for a decent Black Milk-sounding beat. It wasn’t a bad use of $5, but I didn’t feel like I’d found anything earth shattering either. From a listening perspective, though, it’s worth a spin if you happen to find one in a bin near you.
say what?