💯🔥🎧 This got me... vibes sent chills throughtout my body & soul... RIP J-Dilla!!!

vet! ps:ik drum ook en richard spaven is een van mijn idolen

show me what you got for the follow up jazz on smooth 💯

16.5.23

BBE Music is thrilled to announce the release of Modern Love, a diverse compendium of specially commissioned cover versions of rarities and classics in tribute to David Bowie.

Featuring an array of artists such as Jeff Parker, We Are KING, Meshell Ndegeocello, Helado Negro, Khruangbin, Matthew Tavares, Nia and more, Modern Love seeks to champion Bowie’s lesser-known connection to soul, R&B, jazz, funk, and gospel. The prominent jazz influences throughout Bowie’s final album, Blackstar, were a key inspiration for curating this collection of reimagined Bowie songs with these artists. The resulting album is an eclectic tribute featuring a group of artists who not only fit together creatively, but who, like Bowie, straddle different worlds musically, with soul and jazz at their core.

Modern Love offers a fresh look at Bowie’s trailblazing career, aiming to highlight the often overlooked relationship between his back catalogue and musical genres traditionally pioneered by artists of color. The project was curated by music executive and DJ Drew McFadden, alongside BBE Music founder Peter Adarkwah. “I felt that the connection between Bowie and R&B, jazz, funk, gospel and all things soulful, had never really been explored before — at least not so much in covers, which tend to lean more towards rock and pop,” says McFadden. “Certainly, there’s been plenty of Bowie covers over the years, but none that have really tapped into what seems to have been a big part of his core musical
style and direction.”

Modern Love is an interactive sonic map. Here, seventeen artists make their way into the varied regions of his sundry catalog and circle back with seventeen unique re-imaginings of both his cornerstone and lesser-known tracks. Some, in atmosphere, feel like a sly alternate take from original sessions (Khruangbin’s ethereal, funk infused version of “Right” from Young Americans); others nod at the source, then wink before diving into the deep waters of another musical stratosphere (Sessa’s sexy Tropicalia-drenched “Panic in Detroit” from Aladdin Sane). Still others take tunes down to the studs and then re-arrange the moody interiors: Meshell Ndegeocello’s pensive “Fantastic Voyage” from Lodger and Tavares’ clever take on “Heroes” which is restructured into a kinetic hardbop-esque backdrop, fronted by ice-cool, held-back vocals. The bullseye these artists aim for is Bowie’s fearlessness. “Fame was an incredible bluff that worked,” he once reflected. “Very flattering. I’ll do anything until I fail. And when I succeed I quit too.”

Modern Love packs us off on a journey that balances on risk’s sharp blade. Track-to-track, it explores what happens when a musician throws out notions of should and safe and stretches beyond the known. These artists use Bowie both as a guide and a prism: A way of being and seeing. Their offerings, widely divergent, explore the inheritance from an artist who freed himself from labels, genres and, consequently, pigeonholes. While he was at it, he decimated fixed notions about territory (or terra) itself; boundaries hemmed-in his creative process, but his essence remained free to roam. He may have vanished in earthly form, yet, as he also promised in the lyrics of “Modern Love,” But I never wave bye-bye . . .” This compilation assures us that his spirit swirls around us. His force is alive to all of us and, here, it is summoned with an incantation that celebrates possibility.

Khruangbin - Right

Freedom Fables

Morning Light (feat. Ria Moran)

Buckle Up

Buckle Up (feat. Soweto Kinch)

Those Days

Those Days (feat. Leah Yeger)

Taking his cue from seminal mix albums of days gone by, Glenn Astro is back with a compilation of original productions from a cast of fictional artists on Nothing Is Real, releasing May 4. 

Across 13 tracks, the Tartelet mainstay celebrates the thrill of discovery which came as standard listening to new entries in series’ like X-Mix and DJ Kicks, moving between head-nodding downtempo, ambient techno, broken beat and all manner of chill-out room delights. You might be left wishing artists such as DJ 1999, Mental Trance and Eye Soul8r had actual discographies to go and explore, but as Astro himself is keen to point out, “nothing is real.” 

Astro has never been shy to embrace classic tropes and tones in his past albums for Tartelet, Apollo and Ninja Tune, but he’s drawing on a different set of influences for this album and embracing the flexibility afforded by using imagined aliases for varied production styles. 

“I had the idea to do a mixtape, preferably with unknown dance tracks that also reflect that whole 90s/early 00s vibe,” Astro explains. “Instead of digging for some records that haven’t been sourced yet or trying to find those ‘forgotten’ treasures, I made the tracks myself. That way I had full control over BPMs, feel and the whole arrangement of tracks. I thought of a few alter egos and started producing the tracks in the order that I intended to play them in a mix. In the end a whole compilation of tracks emerged.” 

While the concept might suggest you’re going to hear a lot of over-familiar sounds, don’t be fooled. Astro is inspired and inquisitive, channeling the experimental spirit of the 90s and early 00s when electronic music was still continually being redefined in all kinds of micro-scenes. In many cases, Astro’s productions slip into the cracks between genres rather than specifically mimicking a style. 

In the run up to its release on May 4, the album will be framed by four key single releases which embody the omnivorous attitude Astro brings to the album. As Crystalline Reality, he explores classic breakbeat in detail, fusing it with starry eyed ambient techno synthesis in an unlikely but wholly convincing combination. Eye Soul8r’s ‘Autumn Subs’ injects ambient synth work in a Fax Records style with a rolling drum funk calling back to the trip hop era. ‘Steppers Worldwide, Unite!’ by The Foundation lands somewhere between pitched down breakbeat hardcore and dubstep, echoing the seldom-mentioned breakstep sound but injecting it with a subtle touch of dub techno. Brain Liquor’s ‘Jaque?’ revels in beatless, Detroit-informed machine funk, laces in some wriggling 303 squelch and gives everything a generous dubbing, but hold tight for the plot twist. 

Even if the reference points are detectable, the end result is a curious blend as indebted to ambiguity as the overall concept of the compilation. Like the spine-tingling sensation of hitting play and awaiting the waves of unknown sonics on one of those seminal mixes, you never know exactly what you’re going to get as you take the trip through Nothing Is Real. 

“In terms of dance music, the 90s and early 2000s are pretty much the blueprint for everything that I’ve later on made myself,” Astro admits. “At the same time, I don’t want to be overly nostalgic about it. We often look at those times, specifically the Y2K years, as being a lot simpler, realer, more honest, which in some cases might even be true. Simultaneously, it's insanely naive. Everything plastic isn’t necessarily futuristic, you know?” 

Nothing is Real drops May 4th on vinyl and digital. 

All tracks written and produced by Glenn Astro

Nothing Is Real V.A. - DJ MIX - Mixed by Glenn Astro

Rust (feat. Tom Misch)

Listen & download: https://melting-pot-music.lnk.to/amsremix

German-Filipino singer Ray Lozano teams up with UK alt R&B hotshot KeepVibesNear for remix single ‘Amsterdam Nights’, co-produced by Samon Kawamura (Max Herre, Joy Denalane). 

Ray's debut album Pairing Mode (03.03.) became a landmark for German-Asian (Pop) Culture and has been reviewed by Spiegel Online, BBC 6, WDR Cosmo and 1Live, just to name a few. 

Pairing Mode is composed of 12 musical short stories, in each of them Ray moves through a perspective on solitude. From longing for love to feeling contempt with yourself, disoriented, and then empowered again. Ray’s honest lyrics paired with her vulnerable, yet sophisticated and bold voice guide us through an emotional dreamy space found somewhere between heartbreak and hope. “Pairing Mode is like a collection of polaroid pictures. Or like a menu, composed of several delicate dishes” she explains, emphasizing that it is to be enjoyed with all our senses. Every track is “a moment that has been captured and is complete as it is.”

Follow Ray Lozano
Spotify https://lnk.to/raylozano_spotify
Apple Music https://music.apple.com/artist/ray-lozano/999630684
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/raylozanoxoxo/

Follow Melting Pot Music
Spotify https://lnk.to/meltingpotmusic_spotify
Apple Music https://music.apple.com/label/melting-pot-music/1548390831
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/melting_pot_music
Bandcamp https://meltingpotmusic.bandcamp.com
YouTube https://www.youtube.com/user/MPMTV
SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/mpmcgn

Lyrics written and performed by Ray Lozano & KeepVibesNear.
Produced by Samon Kawamura & Ray Lozano. 
Instruments performed by Samon Kawamura & Ray Lozano.
Guitar by Boti Ikvai-Szabo.
Mixed by Samon Kawamura. 
Mastered by Arne Schumann.
Artwork by Parissa Charghi. 
Press photos by Eno de Wit.

Cat No: MPM 336-X1
Artist: Ray Lozano & KeepVibesNear 
Titel: Amsterdam Nights (Remix)

© ℗ 2023 Melting Pot Music

Ray Lozano & KeepVibesNear – Amsterdam Nights (Remix)

Free

Free (feat. Tom Misch)

The afternoon spills gold over the beach. “Hold On” stitches memories together. Traveling is suspending the clock — and carrying on.

Hold On

04 Yaw - Where Would You Be

FSX-024:  Charlotte Dos Santos - Cleo
coming out June 21st on Fresh Selects: http://freshselects.bandcamp.com/album/cleo

Watch the music video: https://youtu.be/vGwRO3evKr0

Written & performed by Charlotte Dos Santos
Produced by Fredfades
Mastered by Kelly Hibbert for Almachrome

Follow:
@charlottedossantos
@fredfades
@freshselects

Cleo

Charlotte Dos Santos "Watching You"

Real Time

Show Me What You Got (feat. Jordan Rakei)

Duality

For My Ladies (feat. Rocco Palladino & Charlie Stacey)

'Akousmatikous', out now on Brainfeeder: https://srjl.lnk.to/akousSo 

Taken from the album 'Chapters of Zdenka', released 11 December on Brainfeeder: https://srjl.lnk.to/chaptersSo

Follow Salami Rose Joe Louis -
Spotify: https://found.ee/srjl-sp
Apple Music: https://found.ee/srjl-am
Instagram: https://found.ee/srjl-ig
Facebook: https://found.ee/srjl-fb
Bandcamp: https://found.ee/srjl-bc
Soundcloud: https://found.ee/srjl-sc

We’re Dumb

Music Lover. Interested in Jazz, Funk, Soul, Elektronic Music, Songwriting, Old Stuff, New Stuff, Hip-Hop.

“Mr.Spaven does it again – much more than just rhythm with this man” Gilles Peterson (BBC Radio).

“Richard Spaven is one of the most unique artists in the world. Triple threat drummer, composer, and producer, his voice rings true with clarity and promise. He is the point where jazz meets the world” José James (Blue Note Records).


Prolific drummer Richard Spaven releases his first full length LP, following on from the acclaimed ‘Spaven’s 5ive EP’. This latest record ‘Whole Other*’ showcases the drumming artistry many of us associate with Spaven, combined with his own productions in the realm somewhere between Jazz, Electronica and Soundtracks.

Spaven has supplied the drums for many artists on stage and in the studio - José James, Flying Lotus, The Cinematic Orchestra, Guru’s Jazzmatazz, Gregory Porter to name but a few. Working closely with such a diverse range of artists must bare influence upon Spaven’s own compositions, in which some how the drums bridge the gap between the worlds of jazz and electronic music.

Spaven’s debut release ‘5ive’s EP’ (Jazz Refreshed) in 2010 quietly turned heads. Most recently it featured on best selling video game ‘Grand Theft Auto V’. With a guest appearance by José James on the hypnotic ‘Maz’, the record was seen by some as a jazz record but was also played out loud by many club DJ’s.

‘Whole Other*’ continues the journey. The music is rich and genre defying. Blue Note Trumpeter Takuya Kuroda appears on the record, playing soulfully amongst ragga tinged drums. GTA V collaborators ‘The Hics’ join Spaven on the albums title track ‘Whole Other*’. UK sounds to the fore – James Blake-esque moody vocals meeting Spaven’s edgy broken drums head on. Guitarist Stuart McCallum’s (The Cinematic Orchestra) signature sound is prominent – Spaven has been working with him since their meeting on stage with Cinematic a few years ago and he features throughout the record.

Richard Spaven – ‘Whole Other*’
Released on P-Vine, Japan 04/07/14
R.O.W. distribution by KUDOS 07/07/14


Show Me What You Got (feat. Jordan Rakei)

Richard Spaven

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