Ugh, it’s super late and I’m still awake! That’s what I get for grabbing a big cup of hot expresso at 7:00pm, and being amped up with sketching out a new iteration of the show’s web site.

Speaking of amped, I was looking for some info on Om Hip-Hop, the hip hop imprint of the Bay Area-based house label, and I’ve stumbled upon a page on the label’s relatively new blog. It’s a fascinating entry on a bootleg project that almost never saw the light of day. It’s a bootleg hip-hop project using tracks from Radiohead’s recent album, courtesy of producer Amp Live. And oy, does he has some serious MC’s on this one! And yes, the production is dope.

So head on over to the blog, read the story, and if you so choose grab both the EP and the accompanying artwork.

Continuing on with my essential picks after a bit of an absence, yet another podcast that may be well worth your time to check out is Broke N’ Beat Radio. Hailing from Philadelphia, Argo is the man who runs things.

Unlike Urban Landscapes and many other such shows, it’s all music here. You won’t hear Argo read back the tracks played, and you won’t hear him in fact at all. That’s how he likes it, and that’s how fans of the show seem to like it too.

In addition to spinning his own sets, he’s amassed a fine roster of exclusive guestmixes coming from the likes of Mad Mats (Raw Fusion, Sweden), Domu (Treble-O, UK), Pablo Valentino (Faces Records, France), and Nickodemus (Wonderwheel/Turntables On The Hudson, U.S.) among many others, adding a variety of tastes, styles and music to the mix.

Give the show a try.

Site: Broke N’ Beat Radio
Subscribe to the Podcast

Got this a few days ago, but nearly forgotten about this.

You’ve probably heard of keyboard maestro/producer Mark de Clive-Lowe. You might have also heard of revered vocalist Bembe Segue.

You may know them by their joint project called The Politik. You might have even known that an album from The Politik dropped last year.

Now comes a new competition. Not only is The Politik putting the vibes out for producers aspiring and pro to take a stab at remixing goods from its album, but there’s a separate competition to create new album artwork.

All of this will culminate to become the new Politik remix album, to be released sometime this year.

Time to let them have their say…

Bembe Segue and Mark de Clive-Lowe welcome you to The Politik Remix Album + Artwork Competition.

We had a lot of fun making the album in London and Vancouver and now it’s everyone’s chance to have a go at flipping it. We’ve uploaded remix parts for the entire album plus the original raw artwork.. share this link and info with everyone who might be interested… labels and crew people, pass this email onto your artists and networks.

This competition is open to anyone and everyone who’d like to have a go at remixing one (or more) songs from The Politik’s debut album. The winning remixes will be compiled into the official remix album The Politik Remixed to be released on both physical and digital formats. The second part of the competition is an artwork remix competition for the cover art of the official release. Download the original artwork by Joshua Mays and have a go at reworking it in the spirit of the Remix.

All entries must be received by April 14, 2008.

For more information, download links for all the files and the submission info click:

http://studio.mashibeats.com/ThePolitikRemixComp.html

Listen to the original album at http://thepolitik.imeem.com.

Best of luck to the participants; looking forward to hearing the winners!

There’s a terrific jazz musician whom I’ve first heard on Raggy’s Off Limits show. Her name is Nanette Natal, and she’s from New York. Her voice and words are forces of nature, and her tunes quite timely. I hope to have her CD that she plans to send along to me so that I can play music from her most recent album on my show soon.

Meanwhile, check out her recent video to “Colors.” Enjoy, and thanks to Nanette for letting me know about it.

Website: Nanette Natal

A random visit to the Beyondjazz site had one of its headlines calling out…

Goyamusic is shutting down. Big thanks to the whole Goya family for their past 10 years or so…RIP

A visit to the relatively new online community Coopr8 (so-named by the Bugz in the Attic crew) has a posting on one of its forums with further details…

Last week our good friends & partners Goya Music Distribution ltd filed
for liquidation. Along with Amato Distribution, yet another great vinyl
dance music distributor spanning a decade or more has folded in the
last few weeks due to the ever declining sales of vinyl.Goya Music, formed back in 1997 by Mike Slocombe and Spencer Weekes,
distributed mainly Broken Beat, Future Soul, and House music. The Goya
catalog included labels and releases such as their own People Records
& Main Squeeze imprints, 2000Black, Bitasweet, Twisted funk &
Omniverse, Dubsided, Eskimo Recordings, Oblong/Plank, Ubiquity,V2, BBE,
and hundreds more other music and artists.

We at this point, still in shock by the sudden departure would just
like to offer our condolence & gratitude to Mike, Spence, Nick
& everyone else at Goya in recognition of all the great times &
music we’ve enjoyed together over the last 10 years.

We are gonna miss them & GM Headquarters but as they say …

“Ain’t no good at writing about us - sorry, the past is the past
anyways……and the future ain’t the same so…move on back to the
music..”

Goya music - RIP 1997 - 2007

As one of the stalwarts for ensuring that such unique music reaches worldwide, this is a true loss. But the music community in of itself marches on.

Sources: Beyondjazz and Coopr8

You can oink all you want, but drop the needle on this record on your next club set and stand back to take cover. This record probably won’t make the floor go oink, but should induce plenty of madness and mayhem nevertheless.

I personally can’t wait to spin this one in a mix; definitely one of the best techno releases out this year, and just calling it techno doesn’t do this piece of wax justice.

Watch out for it, cuz at 500 pressings you want to be quick!

Release date: 29 November 2007
Format: 12″

Track Samples:
Are You..
[audio:are-you-nuts.mp3]
Konono
[audio:konono.mp3]