With the great news that the dopest of dope MCs (and DJs) have reunited in 2013 for extensive touring, there comes the hope that Jurassic 5 will release another album sometime in the near future. Now I don't wanna start any rumors here, because I'm certainly not in the know, and I have absolutely no evidence that another LP would or could be in the works, during or post-2013 tour. It certainly would be amazing, considering no new J5 material's been released since 2006's full-length, Feedback that, although it contained some great tracks, was not up to the vibe candy and pure fun of their previous 2 LPs and debut EP. One can dream...
Anywhoo, this post is a tribute to one of my all-time fave MCs, the self professed 'Verbal Herman Munster, Friendly Neighborhood Baritone' Chali 2na, who's 'One-Sixth of A Clique That Runs Shit.'
I couldn't agree more.
You'll find all of those lyrics and much more in the insanely groovy track 'Comin' Thru,' off Chali 2na's 2009 debut LP, 'Fish Outta Water.'
2na's instantly recognizable baritone and smooth chillin' delivery perfectly complement the lyrical wordplay, beats, and grooves virtually anywhere he pops up, whether during his stellar work in J5, his solo outings, or his guestwork with countless artists, including Ozomatli(founding member), Blackalicious, Breakestra, The Mighty Underdogs, Lateef the Truthspeaker, Lyrics Born, and The Herbaliser, to name just a few. As a unique voice in the world of hip-hop (literally!), Chali 2na doesn't need heavy analysis into his style and substance. He is simply a great rapper, presence, and Master of the Lyrical Domain.
So without further ado, let's enjoy quite possibly the briefest post you'll ever get from me in the MusicVibe365 universe. Lyrics included below, for your enhanced enjoyment. And don't forget to go out there and check out the rest of Chali 2na, which includes a lot of the best that hip-hop in the past 15 has had to offer...
'(Comin' Thru Today) Welcome to Terrordome I'm your host the friendly neighborhood baritone Vocals channel the spirits of old poets I don't drink my glass, never will hold Moët Similar to Paul Lawrence Dunbar From the crew you thought was just all chorus and one star...Now I'm one-sixth of a clique that runs shit While commercial counterparts are in constant conflict, I'm... (Comin' Thru Today) A lot of details On my body be scales, I'm from Ida B. Wells People see me feelin' good times just like eleven With a really deep militant mind like Michael Evans Every posse recline watch me get applause Forming reservoirs on your desert shores You're witnessing mental and verbal fitness, friend Tuna fish that descended from Lake Michigan (Comin' Thru Today) Competition Listen You Got Work to Do Chali 2-N-A Bringing it Straight to You (Comin' Thru Today) You Can't Pass it By Chali 2-N-A Comin' Straight from Chi'...
Back in the early to mid-1990s, when MTV was in the throngs of precipitating the Reality TV Devolution, you could still catch a music video or three an hour if you were lucky. I must confess I was hooked on 'The Real World,' and the idiocracies of guys like Puck now look tame in comparison to all the other reality show douchebags and drama queens who have clogged up cable and network TV with their verbal diarrhea, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Having said that, I do have my guilty reality pleasures, Shahs of Sunset being one of them. Yes, it's that bad.
By 1997, I had moved on to VH1, which actually still had full-hour blocks dedicated to music programming. That was the year they debuted the legendary rockumentary show Behind the Music, which became famous for mining all the decadent Spinal Tap-esque rock 'n' roll lifestyle excesses, overdoses, downfalls, and rehabs that self-parody and cliché could afford.
As a nocturnal being, I was naturally drawn to VH1's Insomniac Music Theater, which ran past midnight into the wee hours. Though the programming was dominated by a lot of '90s Alternative,' grunge, heavy metal, surf-punk, and other noisy stuff, you could occasionally check out some new music that slanted towards the eclectic. That's where I first heard the pop-luck stylings of Cornershop.
'Brimful of Asha,' from the 1997 LP When I Was Born for the 7th Time, is arguably Cornershop's best known track. It's a 5 minute-plus pure pop gem, and in fact its subject matter, so brilliantly conveyed by the perma-grinned shimmying teeny-bopper in the bubblegum-flavored technicolor video, pays homage to the venerable 45-RPM vinyl record single, old radio stations and broadcasts in India, and the greatest Indian 'Playback Singers' of the Bollywood film industry, including Mohammed Rafi, Lata Mangeshkar, and the namesake of the cut, Indian pop legend Asha Bhosle (and Lata Mangeshkar's sister). In addition, the song namedrops other music icons of yesteryear, including French singer Jacques Dutronc, T. Rex frontman Marc Bolan, and two legendary music labels, Argo Records (Jazz), and Trojan Records (ska, rocksteady, dub, reggae).
The song is a near perfect blend of East-West musical traditions, reflecting cultural intersections in the life of Tjinder Singh (Guitars, Lead Vocals, Lyrics), a Brit of Punjabi Sikh heritage and one of the co-founders of Cornershop (Co-founder and Guitarist/Keyboardist/Tamboura Player Ben Ayres is the only other remaining original member). In this song, like many other Cornershop tunes, Singh moves seamlessly between English and Punjabi vocal phrasing and Eastern and Western instrumentation, mixing elements of lo-fi, rock, electronica, psychedelia, dream pop, and world fusion.
I've attached a copy of the video, which is over a minute shorter than the LP version. You can also check out the Norman Cook (aka Fatboy Slim) remix, which is easily accessible over the interwebs.
1. Brimful of Asha (Single Version, from the 1997 LP When I Was Born For the 7th Time)
'Sleep On the Left Side' is my 2nd favorite track on When I Was Born for the 7th Time, and it's the leadoff cut from the album. It sets the mood of the rest of the LP, with its quirky accordion flourishes, droning basslines, swirling keyboards/synth, orchestral touches, impressionistic lyrics, and hypnotic groove. 'Left Side' is another colorful, retro-inspired video, a sort of companion piece to 'Brimful of Asha,' one that's also about a minute shorter than the original LP version.
2. Sleep on the Left Side (Single Version, from the 1997 LP When I Was Born For the 7th Time)
Cornershop resurfaced in 2002 with the LP 'Handcream for a Generation.' During the hitatus, Singh and Ayres pursued side projects, including a collaboration under the name Clinton. 'Handcream' was a worthy followup to their previous LP, though not as artistically daring or commercially successful.
It was not til 2009 that the pair reunited for what amounted to a 7 year hiatus from Cornershop, with the LP 'Judy Sucks a Lemon For Breakfast.' And since then, they've gotten back in the Cornershop groove, releasing two more full-length LPs, 2011's 'Cornershop and the Double-O Groove Of,' and 2012's 'Urban Turban (The Singhles Club).'
I've selected my fave track from 'Double-O,' which is in essence a concept album featuring the collaboration with virtually unknown British Indian pop-folk chanteuse Bubbley Kaur. The festive name aside, 'Topknot' is an irresistible slice of Bollywood-meets-Bhangra-inspired Punjabi dance pop, with Kaur's exuberant vocals soaring above a solid mid-tempo groove.
3. Topknot (Featuring Bubbley Kaur), 2009, from the LP 'Cornershop and the Double-O Groove Of'
'Urban Turban (The Singhles Club)' really is a remarkable album, especially considering that although Cornershop have not really altered their sound all too much since their mid-90s debut, always comfortable with the hodge-podge of East-West instrumentation and in exploratory mode when it comes to genre-hopping, the LP's sound is very contemporary, in the sound of 2012. What this means is that Cornershop must have been well ahead of their time in mixing it all up back then, so much so that, with just minimal tweaks, Urban Turban could have premiered as a mid-late 90s Cornershop release!
My fave tracks run the gamut of diverse sound pastiches on Urban Turban. The icy electro-synth gallop of 'Non-Stop Radio (Extended Play)' featuring some quirky wordplay from French vocalist Celeste, is accompanied by a brilliant 80's style throwback video! 'Beacon Radio 303' (featuring Rajwant) sounds like Bombay met Dr. Dre and made sweet love on the dancefloor, while 'Milkin' It' is pure space-electro hip-hop featuring the MC stylins' of In Light of Aquarius paying tribute to a who's who of influential hip-hoppers and legends. This is also accompanied by a great clip, shot low-tech home video style, in and around Oakland, CA. Finally, there's the rolling, dream pop head-bopper 'Something Makes You Feel Like,' featuring French actress and indie-popper Soko.
4. Non-Stop Radio (Single Video Version and Extended LP Version), featuring Celeste (2012, from the LP Urban Turban)
5. Beacon Radio 303, featuring Rajwant (2012, from the LP Urban Turban)
6. Milkin' It, (Single Video and Extended LP Version) featuring In Light of Aquarius (2012, from the LP Urban Turban)
7. Something Makes You Feel Like, featuring Soko (2012, from the LP Urban Turban)
In closing out this post, I'll leave you with the Cornershop song that arguably started it all. After their early independently released material impressed ex-Talking Heads frontman David Byrne, who was just launching his Luaka Bop world fusion label, the band was signed to Luaka and released its 2nd LP, 'Woman's Gotta Have It.' The opening and closing tracks on the LP (6 A.M. Juliandar Shere and 7:20 A.M. Juliandar Shere) are companion pieces sung (and chanted) by Singh in Punjabi with a compression effect, backed by Indian instrumentation, and evokes a mystical vibe. The official video single clocks in at more than 2:30 shorter than the epic original, so I've attached both for your listening (and viewing) enjoyment!
8. 6 A.M. Juliandar Shere (1995, Video Single Version and Full LP Version, from the LP Woman's Gotta Have It)
If I told you that an indie/noise rock/dream pop/punk band whose main lineup included a drummer, bassist, and guitarist was adding a 4th musician, could you guess who that fourth permanent member would mostly likely be? Rhythm Guitarist? Keyboardist/Synth? Pianist? DJ/Turntablist/Programmer? Brass? Woodwinds? Percussionist? Accordion?
In the case of The Dambuilders, who were born in Honolulu in 1989 from co-founders Eric Masunaga (Guitar) and Dave Derby (Bass, Lead Vocals), burst out in Boston in the early 90s, and then disbanded in 1998, that magical 4th instrument was the Electric Violin. On virtually every song they released from 1993 onwards, spanning 5 LPs, you will hear that electric violin, helmed by Joan Wasser (who also did double duty on lead/backing vocals). It is so naturally integrated into the songs that whether it's melting into basslines and guitar riffs (thereby enhancing the sonic layering), busting out in solos, or playing the contrasting element to those two other stringed instruments, it turned out to be the missing piece that helped to gel and define The Dambuilders' signature sound.
I picked up their 1994 major label debut (and 4th LP overall), Encendedor, at the venerable Rockaway Records in Silverlake, sometime late in that year. I think it must have been one of my first visits to the iconic indie store, which miraculously is still kicking, despite its modest size and scope (Amoeba Records, a behemoth among indie record stores, it is not!). Notwithstanding the corporate aegis of Atlantic Records, Encendedor is at its core an independently made record which manages to sustain the band's edginess while bringing The Dambuilders sound to its most artistically evolved state, compromising nothing. Professional engineering and production enhances the vocal melodies and harmonies, while thickening the instrumental soundscape.
For most of you who are only hearing of The Dambuilders for the first time in this posting, it may be a relatively moot statement regarding an already 'deceased' band of relative obscurity, but Encendedor is, in my opinion, the finest and most cohesive album the Dambuilders ever made. From the opening track, the brilliant, moody, slightly menacing semi-instrumental 'Copsucker,' The Dambuilders sound arrives fully formed. They rock hard, chaotically, and melodically, punctuated by an epic explosion of tortured screaming seldom heard on any record before or since.
1. Copsucker
'Colin's Heroes,' 'Kill Haole Day,' Smell,' and the minor radio/MTV hit 'Shrine' are the songs which best unite soaring melodies with the rhythmic quadruple noise rock/punk assault of Masunaga, Wasser, Derby, and drummer Kevin March, while 'Slo-Mo Kikaida' is a groovy dream pop sound collage. The album even includes a power ballad (well, kinda sorta), the wistful 'Idaho.'
2. Colin's Heroes
3. Smell
4. Slo-Mo Kikaida
5. Shrine
'Collective' is a dark, noir-ish slice of impending doom that contains anxious spoken word passages, dream pop melodies, angry shouts, and swirling, churning guitar and electric violin loops that howl like a Sonic Youth dopplegänger.
6. Collective
'Wake from the Sleep to Recover The Weapon of Faith in your Hands Destiny Hangs from a Star Wait for the Night to Descend Smash the Citadel Know that the Devil will Fall Carry the Words to the Minarets Never Forget, Never Forget Decide...Decide...Decide...Decide... Accept it!'
The LP concludes with two of my least favorite Encendedor tracks, 'Delaware' and 'Fur.' Approriately, the album ends as it starts, with frantic and horrific screams at the climax of the closer, 'Fur.'
So in the annals of the 'Where are They Now?' files, Bassist/Lead Vocalist Derby has done some spotty solo work and fronted a band or two since the breakup of The Dambuilders. Guitarist Masunaga has spent the majority of the past 15 years playing recording engineer (he owns a studio in Cambridge, MA), lending his production and post-production (mixing, mastering) talents to a long list of artists. Drummer Kevin March has been a permanent member of bands such as Guided by Voices, and has compiled an impressive session drumming resumé. And last but certainly not least, violinist/vocalist/guitarist/keyboardist Joan Wasser (yes, she's truly a multi-instramentalist) has done a ridiculous amount of guesting/sessioning with a wide variety of artists, and has also cut 3 LPs of her own as Joan as Police Woman.
I was working at Sony Music in their Film Soundtracks Division when I came across this little gem of an LP called 'Six Million Ways to Live.' It was 2003 and I was taking a hiatus from the rat race, so why not spend a few months poking around Sony Studios doing all kindsa odd jobs? Basically I was filling in for various music department staff who were on short-term leave or extended spring/summer vacations, so I was getting shuffled around from desk to desk.
The best post I had there was a several weeks' long stint on a 'special ops' project of re-organizing and cataloguing the division's Music Library. Unleashing a Musicoholic like me in this stockroom at the back of the office, shielded from supervising eyes, allowed to slosh around for hours in the stacks which were packed deep, shelved 8 feet high with row upon row of dusty CDs, not to mention the dozens and dozens of boxes haphazardly stacked on the floor, spilling over with mounds of unruly CDs? And get paid for it. Are you kidding me?!? This is musical Nirvana!
From the looks of it all, I'm not quite sure this music madness had ever been corralled and catalogued. Most of the cartons on the floor were likely the ones that get smuggled into the department by someone who knows someone who kinda sorta doesn't really know anyone, but hey, they got their band's demo disc into Sony Film Soundtracks division in hopes that some dood like me's gonna listen to their pride and joy and stardust dreams, fall head over heels in music lust with it, then pass it up to the likes of the Prez and VP (at the time, two super-cool ladies named Lia Vollack and Pilar McCurry), for inclusion on the next big Sony blockbuster soundtrack. That spring and summer, true blockbusters were in short supply over at Sony. S.W.A.T.? Charlie's Angels 2? Gigli? Anyone, anyone?
I can't tell you exactly how many gems I fished outta that murky Loch Ness of musical mysteriosos, but these London-based and Manchester-influenced Dub Pistols , a live band and DJ outfit led by Barry Ashworth, were one of my prime catches. The LP 'Six Million Ways' to live had actually been released in 2001, just prior to 9/11, as a promotional CD (it was subsequently put into wide release in the UK in 2003 and wasn't officially released in the U.S. til 2005!) The themes therein presaged Sept 11, 2001, and the chaotic, violent new chapter of world conflict that was upon us, and in which we were firmly living while I sat there in 2003. Songs on the LP are punctuated by ambient samples of voices echoing and sirens reverberating on digital delay, behind aggressive big beat percussion, funky basslines, blaring horns, electronic programming, and dubby walls of sound.
Amidst this moody, dark soundscape were some definite club-rocking beats and tracks. I've chosen my three favorites for sharing here. First up is the infectious, ferocious wordplay of Fresno, California's finest, featured guest rapper Planet Asia on the funky hip-hop assault of 'Architect':
1. Architect (Featuring Planet Asia)
'The Idea of Style, and Competing for the Best Style, Is the Key to All Forms of Rocking....Rocking...Rocking...Rocking...Rocking... ...It's a New Millenium, Fear for Combat I'm on the Water, Temporize All Contact Your Beats are Bangin' Boom! Your Squad is Done! Step Up and Get Some Bounce! Come On...Bounce! Come On!'
Next comes the old skool ska-inflected, orchestral hip-hop dancefloor dubness of 'Riptides,' featuring New York's own Sight Beyond Light and their multiple MCs on the mics, one of whom seems to be suffering from a seriously stuffy nose, as he incites the dub-club par-tay!
2. Riptides (Featuring Sight Beyond Light)
'We pull you in like Riptides (What? What!?!) Tread Water While You Drift By (What? What!?!) ...Make Some Noise All My People Out There Make Some Noise All My People In Here Make Some Noise All the People Everywhere, Make Some Noise!'
Finally, we end on the headbobbing, instrumental dubtronica-trip-hop workout 'Revolution,' with its simulated electronic foghorns sounding in the background, behind some hypnotic bass grooves, dubbed out brass on heavy digital delay, all swirling around in one big churning vortex of aural pleasure!
It was 1996. L.A. On a dark and stormy night that was channeling Chandler. Marlowe. Lynch. I was in some since-expired record store in once-seedy Hollywood, trawling the listening stations for new music. Out popped this CD cover art, drawing me in closer to its magnetic field. An Elysian Field, it turns out. I strapped on the cans, and magnetically levitated into the arousing astral plane of the soundscape surrounding my noggin.
Elysian Fields are a curious case in the rock/pop/indie pantheon. A seeming contradiction in terms of their sound, mood, creative expression, recognition, and status as a band, what can be definitively said of them is that they are adaptive, consistent, and assured of a musical legacy, with their going-on-two decades discography.
For those who love and appreciate music as high art, Elysian Fields is associated with a sense of place that includes New York City as its birthplace and home base (Brooklyn to be exact, long before Brooklyn got all hipstered out), and Paris as its spiritual alter ego and European 'headquarters.' Certainly, their songs evoke a certain seediness, noir, sultriness, experimental, avant-garde, gothic, nocturnal, loungy confluence of new world and old world sensibilities, expression, and audacity so closely associated with these two ultra-prominent world cities.
And therein lie the contradictions. Sure, the sound that Elysian Fields has created and cultivated is very identifiable and, while certainly iconic and non-mainstream, is filled with motifs and common threads that carry from song to song, which paradoxically lend some level of conventionality to their approach.
For one, there's the instrumental/vocal/lyrical soundscape that stylistically links all of their 6 lps (on their website, they are announcing their 7th full-length LP, 'For House Cats and Sea Fans,' with a tentative release date of February 2014). This soundscape, in all but the rarest occasions, features the impossibly aching, breathy, ethereal, icy hot torch song aesthetic of lead vocalist and co-lyricist/co-founder Jennifer Charles, whose voice exudes primal sexuality, with a raw yet restrained intensity and fluid, jazzy delivery that in my opinion is virtually unparalleled in rock/pop/indie music. At least, in the English-language speaking world of artists. Clearly, her style and substance bear strong resemblance to the long lineage of European, particularly French, chanteuses like Edith Piaf, a lineage that dates back much further. One could imagine her in 1920's Paris, performing in small clubs and cafes on the Left Bank, or perhaps mesmerizing townfolk during the late-19th century somewhere in the French countryside, or even as an enchantress performing in medieval times. She would also fit in well as a fuzzy subject highlighted by Van Gogh colors in a late-night scene in such masterpieces as his 'The Night Café' series of paintings. Ms. Charles has sung in many languages on Elysian Fields and side projects, including in French, Ladino, Aramaic, Arabic, Spanish, and Greek. to an expectedly amplified sensual effect.
Adding to the Elysian sound cocktail is the minimalism of the instruments that accompany and enhance the moody, dark, mysterious, and seductive vibe that emanates from every sigh, purr, and whisper of provocative quietude, and in the soaring highs of Jennifer Charles' vocal and lyrical stylings. Co-founder and guitarist Oren Bloedow is the principal architect and co-arranger of this sound. As the defacto 'musical director' of the band (in fact he was a musical director by trade, pre-Elysian Fields), He populates the Elysian soundscape with the tastefully placed contributions of well-regarded live and session collaborators who provide flourishes of piano, stand-up acoustic bass, subtle use of keyboards and electronic programming, and Oren's own occasional gruff baritone lead vocals, harmonies, and rumbling, minimalist, knife-edged electric guitar strums.
But Elysian Fields are not just confined to the languid tempos that characterize the majority of their songs. Bloedow and Charles seem to throw in at least a few mid-tempo tracks on every album, and even the occasional up-tempo tune, for those more inclined to percolating groove than smoldering, sensual, slow song stomp. They infuse these more groove-oriented songs with additional orchestration (with occasional world fusion flair, including Indian mysticism), and more aggressive, yet still minimalist instrumentation. These songs are as moody as moody can be. Perfectly integrated with Jennifer Charles' ecstasy-drenched jazz phrasing, the instrumentation drips, steams, oozes, crawls, bleeds, drones, convulses, swings, shakes, syncopates, cascades, and swirls around her vocals, with occasional walls of guitar feedback to accentuate the more incendiary passages.
Whether of the slow, mid-, or up-tempo variety, these songs continue along a lyrical path that, by my own completely unscientific calculations, comprise roughly 90 percent of their output! The lyrics unfold as dream sequences, many bordering on the sinister, chaotic, nightmarish, and scandalously titillating. The songs immerse themselves in lurid themes of unbridled desire, such that when things are at their best for the protagonists, the results are thrilling, mind-blowing, naughty, and fantastical. In other instances, these same themes explore the star-crossed, dangerous, and potentially deadly nature of love and lust, including sexual obsession, psycho-sexual drama, torrid sexual affairs, secret sexual liaisons, animalistic sex, and quite possibly, sex with aliens--No I'm not making this shit up, yo!!! (See below, 'Set the Grass On Fire, 'Last Night on Earth').
So is this music Art Rock? Gothic Depresso, Horror Soundtrack-esque? Bedroom Nitey Nite Lullaby Rock? Dream Pop? Indie-Alterna Sex-clectica Erotica? All I can say is, labels mean nothing and these are questions to be explored and debated by the listener. Or not. But if you do, perhaps it's best explored with a partner who might engage in these explorations with you!
In any case, I won't go on blabbing and babbling any longer. It's time to let the music speak and seduce for itself. Here's a smattering of my favorite Elysian Fields tracks, presented in both video and audio format for your viewing and listening pleasure. Emphasis on pleasure. Let Jennifer Charles' alluring full-lipped pout and femme-fatale vocal musings drive you mad, crazy, and insane with desire. Don't deny yourself the ecstatic bliss that is this magnificently moody music. And yes, embrace the spacey sound of what sex in space, quite possibly with aliens, would sound like...
1. Jack in the Box (1996, MCA Records, from the LP Bleed Your Cedar)
2. Star (1996, MCA Records, from the LP Bleed Your Cedar)
3. Rolling (1996, MCA Records, from the LP Bleed Your Cedar)
4. Black Acres (2000, JetSet Records, from the LP Queen of the Meadow)
5. Bend Your Mind, LP Version (2000, JetSet Records, from the LP Queen of the Meadow)
Bend Your Mind, Live at Sans Pile Sessions, 2010
6. Tides of the Moon (2000, JetSet Records, from the LP Queen of the Meadow)
7. Drunk on Dark Sublime (2004, Diluvian Records, from the LP Dreams That Breathe Your Name)
8. Set the Grass On Fire (2007, Naïve Records, from the LP Bum Raps and Love Taps)
9. How We Die (2009, Reverb Records/Vicious Circle, from the LP The Afterlife)
10. Climbing My Dark Hair (2009, Reverb Records/Vicious Circle, from the LP The Afterlife)
Climbing My Dark Hair, Live in Lyon, France, 2009
11. Red Riding Hood (2011, Vicious Circle Records, from the LP Last Night on Earth)
12. Sweet Condenser (2011, Vicious Circle Records, from the LP Last Night On Earth)
13. Last Night On Earth (2011, Vicious Circle Records, from the LP Last Night On Earth)
Much like the Japanese manufacturing juggernaut that became
famous for taking existing products and making them better, smarter, and more
durable, the Washington D.C. collective Fort Knox Five(despite its name, a Foursome) has built its reputation by taking existing songs and remixing them
into something more grooveworthy, playful, inventive, and more often than not,
catchier and more funkified than the originals! They’ve found notoriety serving
up remixes for a who’s who of funk, jazz, hip hop, afro-cuban, and electronica,
including: A. Skillz and Krafty Kuts, Afrika Bambataa, All Good Funk Alliance, Bitter:Sweet,
Bob Marley, Chris Joss, Joe Bataan, Kraak and Smaak, Louis Armstrong, Mo’
Horizons, Nickodemus, Thunderball, Tito Puente, Torpedo Boyz, Tower of Power,
and Ursula 1000.
Yet it should not be overlooked that Fort Knox Five have
also released their own material on their Fort Knox Recordings label going back
to 2003, including several singles and EPs, an LP (2008’s Radio Free DC), and
appropriately, issued a Remix LP of their own tracks, 2009’s Radio Free DC
Remixed. Things have been quieter for the FKF in the past couple of years. As
FKF member Jon Horvath explains in the below video, Fort Knox Five have been
focusing on producing and remixing many other artists under their growing Fort
Knox Recordings label, which has understandably limited their DJ sets,
full-band live performances, and studio recordings for the time being.
In the meantime, there’s plenty left to explore and enjoy
for Fort Knox Five neophytes. I’ve assembled a short playlist of some of my
fave FKF tracks below. Five of the six are FKF originals, either purely
instrumental tracks or at most filled with vocal samples, while the sixth one,
‘Ain’t it Funky,’ contains full vocals.
These 6 tracks will take you on groove-infused electronic breakbeats journey through the Fort Knox Five sound collage, from the Latin Jazz/Funk of
‘Blowing up the Barrio’ and ‘The Brazilian Hipster (Dr. Rubberfunk Mix), to the
Deep Soul/Funk of A. Skillz and Krafty Kuts’ ‘Ain’t it Funky (Fort Knox Five
Vocal Remix), and the Trip-Hop/House/Electro club vibes of ‘Blowing up the
Spot,’ ‘Robbing the Room’ and ‘The Party Pushers (Smalltown Romeo Remix).’
1. Ain't It Funky (Featuring A. Skillz and Krafty Kuts, Fort Knox Five Vocal Remix, 2005)
‘ I Gotta Feed the Funk
Get my Mind off the Junk
Melt it Down to a Churning Burning Hunk
That’s the Way My Peeps Pull the Funk Outta Me!’
2. Blowing Up the Barrio (2004, from the EP Blowing Up the Barrio)
3. The Brazilian Hipster (Dr. Rubberfunk Mix, 2004, from the EP The Brazilian Hipster)
4. Blowing Up the Spot, Featuring Akil Dasan (2006, from the Compilation LP New Gold Standard)
5. Robbing the Room (2003, from the EP Dodge City Rockers)
6. The Party Pushers, Smalltown Romeo Remix (2009, from the LP Radio Free DC Remixed)
