Ave.To - Three Way Intersection

Asahra Music



Hip-hop is where the various music languages most easily find exciting new ways to intersect and produce beat-oriented acceleration. And while this is no breakthrough theory, it's still amazing that someone can achieve such a prolific dialogue at an early stage. "Three Way Intersection" is the debut album of a trio of producers hailing from Washington, DC but with an array of musical and geographical backgrounds that help us better understand this hip-hopped neo-soul/jazz conglomerate.

There's no accident in Ave.To. You just can't assemble countless variables and build up to a sound that is both cosmopolitan and incredibly true to its various roots by accident. No, this is meticulously drawn to take the pulse of the afrobeat while saluting the boogie nights of Western cities. Producers Oddisee and Unknown ventilate just enough air for reed specialist Kolai to accommodate his flute incantatory drawings.

And if Oddisee manages to incorporate a certain Sudanese heritage into the creative soup, Kolai, an African-raised Frenchman, takes the beat for a little walk through the massive Eastern traditions. That inter-cultural crossover can be heard on "Gallery Place" and "Natural", the latter consciously aimed at two sides of the dance floor: the festive, overexcited heat of any decent club, as well as the more contemplative, early-morning call for a tiresome last dance.

In the steam of things, it's easy to drool over any cross-cultural subtext emerging from an ensemble that simply desires to punch above its weight class. Nevertheless, after the glorious, jazz-scented "Glow Nights" or the soulful, beat-centered "Abuja", scepticism is rapidly booed off the central stage. But while both numbers are sure to satisfy even the most demanding palate, it becomes evident that Ave.To changed the rules midway through the game.

The second half of the record is arguably more inclusive than the first, evoking the tempered demons of jazz (as on "Future Funk"), but also the vacant spirits of colourful African rhythms (heard on "Unmandyax"). And even if "Three Way Intersection" is a record I'll always sing the praises of, the only (fatal?) flaw has to be its duration. Over 70 minutes of overloaded music is perhaps excessive – there's material here for two great albums, material that compressed as it is in just one will probably lose a good share of its potential.

http://www.properlychilled.com/music/release/profile.php?view=590

Coffee Breakz #71-80

#71: Um chá das cinco com muito groove (rep.)
#72: A Jukebox de Cat Power
#73: A nostalgia da mixtape
#74: A migração dos elefantes em rota dub
#75: O som da rua nem sempre é o som da frente
#76: Blue Note a caminho do pôr do sol
#77: Straight Up the Block
#78: Turntable Jazz no Posto de Escuta
#79: A mixtape de Faca Monstro
#80: A última pausa para café antes do Verão

#80: A última pausa para café antes do Verão

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Antes de ir de férias, o Coffee Breakz preparou um lanche especial com duas curtas-metragens no menu: o techno temperado a dub de Eddie Silverton e as planícies electrónicas de Attic Tree. Mas de entrada temos reggae sem espinhas por Ise Lyfe e Zion-I. No final, já com os dedinhos dos pés a tocar a água salgada do mar, um quase-conto narrado pelos Godspeed You! Black Emperor, que começa assim:

"The car's on fire and there's no driver at the wheel/
And the sewers are all muddied with a thousand lonely suicides/
And a dark wind blows/
The government is corrupt/
And we're on so many drugs/
With the radio on and the curtains drawn".

Porque a vida é mais lenta no Verão.

01 Ise Lyfe Thighbone (feat. Zion-I)
02 Plastic Little (feat. Ghostface, Amanda Blank, Spank Rock) Crambodia (Pink Skull remix)

03 Eddie Silverton
3.1 White Sand
3.2 Zyckle
3.3 Basic Course

04 Chin Chin Toot D'Amore (DJ Eli remix)

05 Attic Tree
5.1 Remember
5.2 Rainy Dayz (feat. Gavin Randle)
5.3 Break Up (feat. DJ Jazzmadass)

06 Godspeed You Black Emperor! The Dead Flag Blues

emitido a 22 Julho

#79: A mixtape de Faca Monstro

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Depois do despique de turntables entre Buddy Peace e Wax Factor, vamos espreitar o volume 1 da mixtape de Faca Monstro, com os eléctrodos avariados de Mundosegundo, Spaced Out e Inspector Mórbido. Há ainda a recuperação de Boards of Canada e material novo de Eliot Lipp e Saul Williams. Na volta pela aldeia global, encontramos a pop japonesa de Shugo Tokumaru e o cancioneiro persa de Niyaz.

01 Buddy Peace vs Waxfactor Non-Mathebetical Fiction (The Sci Fu Megamix)

02 Eléctrodos Avariados: Faca Monstro
2.1 Mundosegundo A Caminho das Estrelas
2.2 Spaced Out Babylon Brigadiers
2.3 Inspector Mórbido A Sonda

03 Boards of Canada Chromakey Dreamcoat
04 Eliot Lipp The Area
05 Saul Williams World on Wheels
06 Kash Yall Aint Heard Nothin
07 40 Winks & M.anifest Walk The Talk
08 Shugo Tokumaru Parachute
09 Niyaz Ishq

emitido a 15 Julho

#78: Turntable Jazz no Posto de Escuta

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Lembram-se dos UNKLE, aquele projecto de James Lavelle, o patrão da Mo' Wax, que em 1998 lançava "Psyence Fiction"? Pois bem, eles acabam de editar o quarto disco, "End Titles... Stories for Film". É com o projecto que a crítica primeiro adorou e depois adorou odiar que abrimos mais uma edição do Coffee Breakz.

No posto de escuta, DJ ZedVantz traz "Turntable Jazz", uma selecção de temas de inspiração ragtime e dixie jazz, revistos pelo dedo atento de gente como Cut Chemist, Kormac e Funky Fresh Few. Resta dizer que a mix ultrapassa a meia hora e que o DJ de Toronto, no Canadá, deu a devida autorização para o Coffee Breakz passar a salada que ele preparou.

01 UNKLE Chemical (feat. Josh Homme)
02 Tanya Morgan Hip-Hop Is Dead II
03 Sizzla Praise Ye Jah

04 Posto de Escuta: DJ ZedVantz Turntable Jazz
4.1 Free The Robots You Let Me Down (Billie Holiday RMX)
4.2 Chinese Man I've Got That Tune
4.3 Kormac Good Lord
4.4 Funky Fresh Few First Met You
4.5 A-ko Fire
4.6 Mooch My Spider Walks Again
4.7 Rube Another Gone Record/Big Band Jump
4.8 A-ko Soul '69 (part 2)
4.9 C.M.R. Artichaut
4.10 Cut Chemist & Numark Swing Set

05 Babe, Terror Nasa Goodbye

emitido a 8 Julho

DJ ZedVantz - Turntable Jazz

(self-released)



For someone who enjoys their jazz served with a spoonful of funky beats, it’s like DJ ZedVantz is preaching to the converted when he puts out a mix like “Turntable Jazz”. The problem with blended music is that it often falls prey to the enormous egos of all genres involved, and even more often reeks of marketing opportunism. And this, of course, ultimately subjects the listener to an abysmal state of boredom. That is not the case here though: the Toronto-based DJ proves to be a deep connoisseur of both jazz and turntablism, and of where one half should meet the other.

In a mix that exceeds the 30-minute mark, ZedVantz manages to pep up some swing jazz classics with solid but compassionate break beats. And apparently the last song was what propelled him to put this stuff together – that “Swing Set” number by Cut Chemist featured on the first Jurassic 5 album. But in the unlikely event of purist classicism being your thing, let me just add that each track here glues together so well with the next one that it constantly frames the whole thing, and gives the impression of a jam session with musicians of the past and present.

Sure you can tell one tune from the other, but this never intended to be a breathless DJ set in the first place. The mix starts off with an unreleased, gloriously sulky revision of Billie Holiday’s “You Let Me Down” by Free the Robots – only to, a few minutes later, perform a slight change in flavor to a more up-tempo incursion with Chinese Man’s “I’ve Got That Tune”. This track here is released by Chinese Man Records, a label that would return by the end of the mix with the hazy “Artichaut”.

The most contentious cut has to be “Good Lord” by Kormac, which includes snippets of dialog and some mad turns worked over a captive, passionate beat. Personally, the track blows my socks off, to say the least. And what about the Funky Fresh Few’s reworking of “First Met You”, the perfect soundtrack to a lazy afternoon of martini-drinking and trashy magazine reading? I shouldn’t get all carried away by the glossy beauty of this or I will end up highlighting each and every track. Let me just say that, if you want more bang for your buck, well, this mix is, you know, free.

http://properlychilled.com/music/dj/session/profile.php?view=27

#77: Straight Up the Block

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O que têm em comum um dos mais hiperactivos produtores da Noruega (Lindstrøm), uma ex-teclista iraniana de Björk (Leila) e um alemão (Maximilian Lopp, na foto) que dá música ao cineasta Fatih Akin, de raízes turcas?

Estão todos na mais recente edição do Coffee Breakz, de novo em antena a fazer a apologia da preguiça, com um copo de martini numa mão e um manifesto escrito à pressa na outra. Há também música nova de Alias e Why? (escola Anticon), RZA como Bobby Digital, Diplo e The Bug.

01 Lindstrøm The Long Way Home (Prins Thomas edit)
02 Truckasaurus Super Copter
03 Leila Little Acorns
04 Smart Growth Immigration Reform

05 Eléctrodos Avariados: Maximilian Lopp
5.1 Round the Block
5.2 Passing By
5.3 Changes

06 Alias Well Water Black (feat. Why?)
07 RZA (Bobby Digital) Straight Up the Block (feat. David Banner)
08 Diplo Brew Barrymore
09 The Bug (feat. Warrior Queen) Poison Dart (Skream Remix)

emitido a 1 Julho