Fly

Just going through some promo stuff and I came across this, some nice jazzy lounge style and deep house sounds. Very smooth and well produced. I'm feeling lazy so I'll just copy and paste some of the album notes:

"This amazing debut and self title album is born out of a wonderful relationship these two excellent producers and musicians have realised in their time together. It is music without extravagance or embellishment, everything kept as simple and as sweet as possible, yet the songs simply soar."

Download "Skip" (mp3)

Download "Fairytale" (mp3)
from "Fly"
by Fly
Jupiter Recordings

• Buy at RealNetworks / Rhapsody
• Buy at GroupieTunes

Let's Party Like It's 1999

Something old today, as it's been a while since we looked back instead of forward here at Groovin' You. A seminal classic from Sasha (aka Alexander Coe), the man who made the progressive sound famous - together with long time DJ partner John Digweed. As well as a bunch of remixes for various artists, he has put out a small but high quality selection of work under his own name. It's often said that his production skills are not up to scratch and that the reason his output sounds so good is due to the people he collaborates with (producers such as Charlie May, Junkie XL, James Holden, Darren Emerson). Regardless, pretty much all the music released with Sasha's name on it does the trick for me.

Incase you are wondering why there is a picture of a PSOne game with todays post, well Sasha wrote half the music on the soundtrack (with Charlie May, natch). Five of the six tracks were original work, but he also included the title track to his 1999 Xpander EP. A pretty genre defining tune, it was perfect for cruising round a futuristic race course at ridiculous speeds. Having sat in a dark room finding the zone last night, I can confirm that neither the game or the music has lost any of its charm in the last 6 or so years. Enjoy:

Sasha - Xpander (YSI)

Sasha - Xpander (zShare)

The rest of the EP was also excellent, from the trance tinged 'Belfunk', the dirty breaks and bass of 'Rabbitweed' and the classic ambient dub of 'Baja'. Sasha's debut LP 'Airdrawndagger' which followed in 2002 is one of my favourite albums of all time. Many dismissed it upon release, probably expecting something more squarely aimed at the dancefloor. But for me (for home listening especially) I think it all sits together perfectly. If you enjoy electronic music, I really can't recommend it enough. Both the Xpander EP and the Airdrawndagger LP are currently available at fairly reasonable prices on Amazon Marketplace.

Gavin @ MySpace

Aidos

I discovered Aidos' album "Dans une apologie beate du show business generalize" completely by chance the other week but the album has really grabbed me. Produced entirely by a French musician, Raoul Canivet, on his laptop it has a sound somewhere between standard electronica and dark instrumental hiphop. It works well as an album, with glitchier tracks like "Etrange Ete" and "Dix Mille Degress" slightly reminiscent of Prefuse 73 or even Jan Jelinek, sitting nicely against the bassier, almost rave of "Celestial" and "Down".

The two tracks below are a pretty fair representation of the full record, the Sixtoo-ish skittery beats and rumbling bass of "A Venir" and the Gallic-flavoured boom-bap "Amertune". According to Last.Fm, I'm the only person in the world to have heard his music (!) but hopefully that'll soon change:

Download "Amertume" (mp3)

Download "A venir" (mp3)

from "Dans une apologie beate du show business generalize"
by Aidos
Pencilbrain Records

• Buy at iTunes Music Store
• Buy at eMusic

Rodion

I picked up a cool new EP today by a couple of guys called Rodion, released on the Gomma record label out of Germany. I can't find a lot of info about them but apparently they are from Rome and Discogs lists this as their first and only release. The music is nice and chunky, with some crazy retro videogame sounding synths and pumping arpeggio basslines. You can take a listen to all 3 tracks from the EP over on their MySpace page. "J Bunka" is my personal favourite. Buy this mp3 release online at Clickgroove.

Gavin @ MySpace

Dub Style

I can't get enough of Trentemoller at the moment. His LP "The Last Resort" has been on heavy rotation since I got it at the start of December. With each listen it just gets better and better. The whole thing is full of beautiful textures, all layered on top of each other with some soft warm bass tones beneath them. The dubby sound of Chameleon, Evil Dub and in particular Nightwalker caught my attention. Buy the CD at Play.com

Trentemoller - Nightwalker (YSI)

These dub style sounds reminded me of a track from a few years back by a Swedish producer and a DJ named Jeff Bennett. It's considerably tougher, but retains the dub like bassline and echo chamber effects. This track is the b-side to his 2001 single "Undertaken", released on Episode records out of Germany. He has since gone on to release material on Poker Flat, Eukatech, Morris Audio and Plastic City as well as his own Kung Fu Dub label.

Jeff Bennett - Re-Taken (Zshare)

Gavin @ MySpace

Willy Baxter Update

After posting about this fellow the other day, I've since had a little chat with him via myspace. He seems like a nice chap and kindly gave me a link to a site with some of his mp3's for download. There are two of the tracks from his MySpace page and two other tracks that I'd not heard before. They are similar in both style and quality to the previous material so head on over and grab them for yourselves. LINK

Gavin @ MySpace

Mmm Melting Pot

Coming out right at the tail end of 2006, Melting Pot's latest compilation "More MPM Sound" is a collection of their 12" releases this year on a nice handy CD format. Jammed full of funk, soul & hip-hop but mainly of the breaks variety. It's very hard to pick any standouts because there is such quality right across the board. Melting Pot do tend to seek out and pick up on the more interesting artists out there.

A-KO - Chicago
Kutiman - No Groove Where I Come From
Breakout - Planet Rock

A good example is A-KO. An 18yr old crate-digger from Grimes, Iowa who has been gathering momentum through internet word of mouth. He puts together remixes, bedroom-style, and in process he keeps all the lovely imperfections kept in tact. "Chicago" is a perfect mix of old samples and new sounds, sans needless over-production.

Kutiman provides us with a nice Afrobeat workout on "No Groove Where I Come From". Great Stevie Wonder styled organ work which builds into a lovely soul jam before gliding off into space.

My highlight though is the Breakout reworking of Africa Bambaataa's “Planet Rock". Energetic and thrilling, and although I struggle to hear the original (I concede I'm rubbish at sample-spotting) it hits just as hard.

There are other reworkings on this compilation too, including "The Mexican" and DJ Shadows "Organ Donor" (which is meant to be hyphy re-remix but I just hear the funk!).

All in all, almost too chilled for winter.

"More MPM Sound" is available at Juno or directly from Melting Pot Music on your format of choice (CD/LP).

Willy Baxter

I only found this guy on MySpace yesterday so I can't tell you much about him really. He is from Helsinki, Finland and is a friend of Kelley Polar (in the MySpace sense, I don't think they know each other personally) and I guess you could say that there is some similarity in their music. Like KP, Baxter's songs are all full of great melodies and there are all sort of cool sounds coming from his synths. I'm not convinced with the vocals in some places but they certainly aren't enough to deter from the otherwise great music. Let's hope he continues to produce more songs and eventually find a record deal. No mp3's I'm afraid so you'll have to listen over at his profile. Start with "Goin Soon" and "In Between" although all 4 tracks are well worth a listen.

Gavin @ MySpace