Apollo Brown & O.C. - Trophies

Producer Apollo Brown and emcee O.C. (of D.I.T.C. fam) released their collaborative album 'Trophies' this past week. O.C. over Beathearts favorite Apollo Browns beats is a deadly combo! Our favorite tracks are Anotha One, Disclaimer, The First 48, Angels Sing, The Formula, Caught Up and of course the first banger presented, Prove Me Wrong.

'Prove Me Wrong' available for free HERE and 'People's Champ' HERE.


 Listen to whole album and head over to the bandcamp site to purchase.

 

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J Dilla - Radio (unreleased)

Oh my, this has just passed us by, tweeted by Onra just now: "talking about #dilla ... somebody needs to officially release this..." Most definitely!, Dilla has blown us away once again with this hard beat, and he's singin' on this as well! Nice! Read a comment that Dilla said he was gonna release a vocal album filled with joints of him just singing. If that's true and it sounds like this, that would be hella cool!

Excerpt from youtube: "This track is from an album that Dilla recorded in 2002 for a major label which was never released. " from J Rocc mix on Benji B's show." So we guess for the MCA album that didn't happen. Dilla says "Ruff Draft" in the beginning of the snippet, but word is that it's not an outtake from Ruff Draft, if it was it would have probably been featured on the deluxe version.

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James Lavelle - The Mo'Wax story

On Record Store Day this past weekend I was flipping through my old Mo'Wax releases. You gotta love a label that put as much effort and resources into the packaging as into the music. And of course their releases are collectibles as much today as they were back then.

Reminiscing on the label I found this great interview with the founder of Mo'Wax, James Lavelle. It's been a while since he was in the spotlight but it so refreshing to again hear his non-genre approach to music and art. The story of how he built his network of artists and founded the label is nothing but inspiring. It was based on the different elements he loved: music, art and great live performances.

Check out the two part interview from the AllSaints Spitalfields basement sessions below. We're pretty sure you'll enjoy it.

Part 1:

 

Part 2:

As a bonus here's a smooth mixtape with some of the great releases from the Mo'Wax era.

Download: Dementio13 - The Monostereo Mo'Wax mixtape

Tracklist:

1. Motor Bass Get Phunked Up - La Funk Mob
2. The Beast - Palm Skin Productions
3. Harmonium - DJ Takemura
4. Insects Are All Around Us - Money Mark
5. Stars - Nightmares On Wax
6. 2000 - RPM
7. Sax Hoodlum - Major Force Productions/Grass Roots
8. Lost & Found - DJ Shadow
9. Covert Action - Lofi Sensibilities
10. Spock With A Beard? - Palm Skin Productions
11. They Came In Peace - Tranquility Bass
12. Sometimes You Gotta Make It Alone - Money Mark
13. Meiso - DJ Krush with DJ Shadow/The Prunes
14. Cabin Fever - Urban Tribe
15. Destroy All Monsters - Skull
16. Slipper Suite (excerpt) - Palm Skin Productions
17. Mutual Slump - DJ Shadow
18. High Noon - DJ Shadow
19. I Don't Know How To Play Piano - Money Mark
20. Bloodstain - UNKLE

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Sonnymoon - Houstalantavegas / DeDe - Phantom (Waajeed Refixes)

Waajeed brings more heat through bling47. This time with two mellow refixes featuring Sonnymoon and DeDe. Be sure to check out the site regularly as Waajeed drop bombs almost every day, especially the amazing series "Dilla Breaks" where producers breaks down Dilla beats and share stories and memories about the G.O.A.T. James Yancey.




I first heard about Sonnymoon at SXSW while hanging with No and Meezy from blindiforthekids.  They played their rendition of Drake’s, “Houstalantavegas” and I was instantly hooked.

Seeing that the duo doesn’t need a third leg producer, the only way I could work with them was do a remix.  We connected, they sent the vocals, and the rest is history… or at least history in the making.

@sonnymoon I’d love to work with you guys more in the future. Mucho respect. Until then, check this bling47 exclusive gem. They have new material dropping this spring and currently on tour.

Check Plug Research for the dates.

Jeedo

Download: Sonnymoon - Houstalantavegas (Waajeed Refix)




The irony of one of my happiest finds last year just happened to be in the worst place.  Rent so high that all the real artists moved out, hipster heaven Williamburg, Brooklyn — The Burg.We were introduced by my homie JT Donaldson that I used to DJ with at the W Hotel in Union Square.  I met Tim K there and later met his darling partner in crime, Dede Reynolds.  Together they are DeDe.

One late night after several Cadillac margaritas inspired by Dam Funk, we stumbled back to their apartment where I heard their yet to be released project.  WHOA!  I asked to remix the single on the spot.  That was the genesis of a brewing relation that would turn into a group (more about that later). In the meanwhile have a listen.

No need to rip the youtube.  Newsletter subscribers will get this in their box tomorrow.

Rejoice.

Jeedo

Download: DeDe - Phantom (Waajeed Refix)

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Beathearts rewind #43: C.J. Mackintosh - Nervous tracks (1994)

C.J. Mackintosh was the don of remixes back in the early nineties. His first production to break through was him teaming up with Dave Dorrell for M/A/R/R/S Pump up the volume (1987) which opened up the world for the duo. Putting out stacks of remixes his best work to us was his interpretations of Sounds of Blackness, Gang Starr and A Tribe Called Quest.

Today we bring one of his most sought after mixtapes from back in the day. Only released on cassette given away with DJ Magazine #101 in November 1993. Macintosh was on top of his gaming cutting up this epic mixtape with the best tracks off the smokin' Nervous label. It includes the game changing Nervous Track from Nu Yorican Soul. We earlier brought you the story of how Kenny Dope built that track here.

C.J. Mackintosh:

"I will be posting up all my DJ mixes from the past & present. Some you may have already but most you will not. I transfered this mix directly from the original DAT is was recorded on to so the quality will be much better than the cassette."
http://cjmackintosh.blogspot.com

Download: Side A
Download: Side B

Tracklist:
A1 Classic Man – Fifth Street Orchestra
A2 Classic Man – Keeping On
A3 Helona – Can't Give Up On Love
A4 Messenger – Guide My Soul
A5 DAT Project – O'ww Baby
A6 Loni Clark – Rushin'
B1 MADA – Good Stuff
B2 Sandy B – Feel Like Singing
B3 Swing Kids, The – Good Feeling
B4 Joe T. Vanelli – Play With The Voice
B5 Nu Yorican Soul – Nervous Track

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Moodyman - Picture this

What can we say? Kenny Dixon Jr a.k.a. Moodyman, the man with the deepest grooves and the nappiest fro in Detroit is back. Picture this is is an amazing blend of styles ranging from his signature dubby detroit grooves on Pray 4 love through the twisted electro track on Basement party to the smooth organic soul gem on U heard. Without a doubt one of his best releases to date. Released on Scion A/V and available as a free download right now.

Download: Moodyman - Picture this EP

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The Beathearts Mark de Clive-Lowe Sitdown Part 2

(If you missed Part 1 read it here: The Beathearts Mark de Clive-Lowe sitdown part 1)
PART 2:
Who were your musical heroes when growing up?
At that time, when it was hiphop and early New Jack Swing, it was the whole Native Tongues collective. It was all the classic early ninties jazzy hiphop. For me, hearing all that, it blew my mind completely! It was funny, because at that time I didn't understand sampling, so I was like how are they making this? And I had some drum machines and was wondering why doesn't my stuff sound like their stuff, haha!

A friend of mine at school was a rapper working with a DJ who was sampling and at lunch time we played each others demos. I hear his demos and was like “it sounds like hiphop, how did you do that?” Ah, it's a sampler!

But then [I got] into the piano more. It was a lot of Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Herbie Hancock, Kenny Kirkland. He was a great piano player who used to play with Branford Marsalis. They were huge influences. And then when it came back to club music, like I said a lot of jungle and I really didn't care who made it, I was a big Peshay fan when he was really doing it.

With the double bass?

Yeah exactly! The Nu Yorican Soul album was a life changer, absolutely! The Innerzone Orchestra stuff. Early Jazzanova, when I first was in the UK, Caravelle, Fedime's flight - that early Jazzanova shit, that was a huge influence. So yeah, it was a pretty broad mix of everything but generally if it had some hump and some groove and some musicality, then I liked it!



Jazzanova – Fedime’s flight

That's also one reason of the reasons why we’ve followed your musical output for years. Everything from neo-soul, to broken beats, to 4/4 deep house to hiphop to jazz. Are there any musical genres and styles you’re curious to discover?

There´s always more to do, I mean I love to collaborate with a rock guitarist, and have a real culture clash and see what happens. I love collaborating with different people, I think everyone you work with have a different background. You know, Miguel's background is between classical and jazz, and we crossover in the jazz, but then, his classical thing is pretty much as far apart from me as my club music is to him. So when we work together it's a whole different vibe, which is beautiful, I love that. And there´s always more people to collaborate with and everyone brings out something different from each other.

Any dream collaborations?

D'Angelo, Herbie Hancock, Q-Tip, maybe a few more. But I'm lucky that I've been able to work with people who I really respect, I mean someone like Pino Palladino, we play together all the time, whenever we see each other we play. He'll call me up saying “what are you doing?” He'll come around and he has his bass with him, so then yeah, I guess we're gonna play haha! It's super cool that I have that kind of relationship.

When I do Church in New York, another bass player, Mark Kelly, he's The Roots bass player now, he does Church, and he's amazing, you know I feel very lucky to work with different talents and also pretty much of the amount of music I've made now, if it's someone I wanna work with I can call them and about at least half the time they probably heard something I've done, so there's a nice angle to start working.

I did a remix for [Brazilian musician and producer] Ed Motta a few years ago, I had a lot of fun with that. We've never worked directly but we talked about a little bit and that'll be fun. I like it when music is fun basically. If we're enjoying it then I collaborate with anyone almost.

Ed Motta –E Muita Gig Vei (Mark De Clive-Lowe Mix)

You know that D'Angelo had the world premiere of his tour in Stockholm in January?

Yeah, I saw the videos! When I saw the Voodoo tour that changed my life definitely, so it's great to see him back. About a month before that tour I did a gig with Chris Dave with his band and Pino was playing base, and it was funny because we were playing The Line. Hearing Chris and Pino playing that together, I was like “Wow! Shit, this is a great band!”

We interviewed Robert Glasper and Chris Dave here last summer and heard that they’ve joined you at the Church sessions to jam. How did you hook up with them? Any plans to record anything together?

Haha, dude, I was playing and I look up and Chris was on the drums! Haha! Simple as that! Robert and I have met a few times over the years and now whenever we see each other we catch up. We haven't done anything musical together but we talked about it. But right he's stupid busy, and I'm pretty busy, but it will happen. We’re always saying let's go in the studio one day and fuck around and see what happens. Chris, whenever I see him we get together, he's a great musician.

Absolutely! To us, one of the highlights of the D’Angelo concert was the 8-minute drum break session with just Chris Dave on stage when the rest of the band took a breather.

Yeah, I can see that! Chris is crazy!



Chris Dave drum solo @ Philadelphiakyrkan, Sthlm, Jan 26th 2012


What are your inspirations today? Records or tunes that have recently blown your mind?

I do listen to a lot of old music, and I think.. no, without going on about that, forget what I was going to say, haha!

I love the James Blake record, that was really fresh, so different. And being in LA, with the Brainfeeder crew with Gaslamp Killer, there's always good stuff. I did the Low End Theory weekly party a few month back and it was fun to play it. It was also fun to hear the Low End Theory resident DJ's play their own music and stuff their working on and the kind of bass culture in LA that's really cool, I like that. It's a really cool party, I think James Blake was DJ'ing that night, and he did an amazing dub step set.

And also, I hear a lot of music, a lot of new music, because I working on it myself. I collaborate with Zed Bias a lot, and I love what he's doing. But I do feel a little overwhelmed with new music right now. I mean, the number of people who hit me on Soundcloud or send me an mp3 or send me an Bandcamp link. I can't listen to everything, and when I do take the time to listen to it, it's not very often that I'm impressed.

But I really love people who work on their craft and master what they doing to a point where they have their own sound. But if I wanna hear something that sounds like Flying Lotus, I listen to Flying Lotus basically. Not that I answered your question at all, haha!


Mark de Clive-Lowe live @ Low End Theory Party LA dec 14 2011


We love what you do, and it's just great to hear where that comes from.

It comes from a lot of old music really. Like the arrangement, musical content comes from the influence of all the older music, of what I call classic music. The sonic approach and sometimes the production approach is influenced by new music, and somewhere in the middle it meets up, if that makes sense.

Another of our favorite track of yours is the Cosmos track with Sandra St Victor. It was the first time we heard a straight up house tune from you and it got such a driving gospelesque vibe to it. How did that song come about?

She smashed that tune, she smashed that! I first saw her on backing vocals at a Chaka Khan gig. Chaka to be honest didn't sound that good. And near the end of the show, she let her backing vocalists sing like eight bars each, and this woman named Karen Bernaud went first and she sounded amazing, and I was thinking “Wow, she sound so amazing, surely this other girl won't sound that good?” And next girl was Sandra St Victor, she sounded incredible! So this is back in the myspace days, so I hit Sandra up on myspace, said I loved that gig, you sounded amazing, and we just kept in touch over the years.


Sandra St Victor & MdCL - Cosmos

And then maybe two years ago I was doing a show in Brooklyn, she happened to be visiting New York, so I said why don't you come down and jam a bit. She did the whole gig and it was this crazy mix of soul, funk, opera, gospel, I mean even opera, it was crazy!

So after that, we were like I guess we’re gonna make some music now? Haha! I just chose some tracks that I was working on or I might have made one fresh for her, and she just knocked them out.

Any upcoming collaborations with her or tracks with a similar vibe coming up?

Actually I'm doing her next album at the moment, which is basically a downtempo soul record, with no dancefloor stuff, and she sounds amazing on it.


Sandra St Victor - At My Spheres/F.M.A.O.-ocity/Cosmos/Cosmos (Souled remix)

You're coming back to Stockholm in May. We haven't had the chance to experience it ourselves yet but heard so much about Church. Tell us about the Church concept.

Yeah, that's not a Church gig, because basically when I do Church it's bringing other musicians with me and we go from the jazz like I said and then more the club thing, but then I also do a solo live set, which we call Remix:Live, and I'll have acapellas on the turntables and then I create live remixes. Everything is made as it happens, nothing’s prepared, and it's basically a house set, but it's all live. That's gonna be a lot of fun!

Any plans of recording/releasing the Church experience on wax/mp3?

Yeah, at some point, I mean I record almost every gig. There may be some releases of that maybe. I’m also working on a new record, it's definitely influenced by Church and will have some of that vibe in it. It's really cool because it has brought me back to my jazz roots and helped my find ways to bring that together with the other stuff. So you're gonna hear that more by the next album, for sure.



Mark de Clive-Lowe 'Zombie' (REMIX:LIVE at Southpaw)

I've started working on an album right now, I've been given an open access to the vault of four great classic jazz labels. They told me to do whatever I want [with their back catalogue]. So I've started that, and that's gonna be the next album. Basically remixing and sampling, some Coltrane, some Ellington, all sorts of stuff, so just fucking with it, having fun with it basically, haha! So that's definitely gonna crossover into Church.

Talking about jazz remakes, did you hear the 1960 What remix by Opolopo?

Yeah, I love Gregory Porter, he'll be doing Church in New York sometime for sure. And Opolopo did a great job on that.


Gregory Porter - 1960 What? (Opolopo Kick & Bass Rerub)

There's a whole movement of New Zealand artists, like Fat Freddy's drop with Joe Dukie, Electric Wire Hustle with Mara TK, Benny Tones and now Myele Manzanza & Funkommunity, all fantastic musicians. Where does that sound come from and what makes it so rhythmic and laid-back?

The sound comes from dub, roots and reggae. There's a huge history of that in New Zealand. Especially in Wellington, which is where, all those guys are from. They got into Badu, Dilla and all sorts of other stuff, but they love that reggae dub bottom in. There's a lot of great stuff coming out of there. But in Auckland where I grew up there were definitely more house and jungle, and the two cities had their different sounds, it's kind of interesting.

I guested on keyboards on a couple of tracks for Myele Manzanza. He's one of my favorite new talents out of New Zealand, I dig what he's doing. And I did a track together with Dallas Tamaira (Joe Dukie) that's never come out called So Tru. Every now and then I listen to it, or a play it to someone, and they be like when are you gonna put it out? And again, funny enough we were listening to the Dwele demos, and at that time Dallas never heard Dwele. So one day I was playing him all that stuff, and we said let's make some music! So it was again influenced by Dwele haha!


Myele Manzanza - Big Space feat. MdCL
But you know I try whenever I can, especially when I get back to New Zealand, I try to do some collabs and work with people. There's an amazing producer named Submariner very few people know about outside of New Zealand. But he's like New Zealand's Pete Rock, he's crazy. He produced a record for a samoan rapper named Khaz the Field Style, and most of the record is in samoan, but his flow is so hip, it's like listen to De La Soul, but in Samoan. Even if you don't understand it, sounds cool you know, haha!


Recloose - Dust feat. Joe Dukie (Submariner Mix)

But is there a "New Zealand sound"?

There's definitely a sound, but I don't feel part of it. I definitely am very proud to be from New Zealand, and I am a New Zealand musician by definition, because that's where I am from. But New Zealand sound, especially the way you talk about it, evolved pretty much after I left. It was starting with Fat Freddy's Drop, and before that there was a band called Bongmaster, and they started developing that sound for sure. It was funny because they had a band called the Crackhead Experience. And Fat Freddy's Drop is the name of type of acid. Haha! So yeah they were all kinda interrelated.


Bongmaster – Ground my ego
But I feel much more influenced by my time in the UK as far as stylistically and then a lot of american music. From the jazz side, sixties and seventies jazz through to Dilla, Soulquarians and the whole Philadelphia sound. To me, those were the things that shaped me more then the New Zealand sound.

But I definitely support them, it's all family. And it's great seeing people like Electric Wire Hustle, they're almost ten years younger than me, and I saw them growing up and it's great seeing them doing their shit, it's very cool.

There so many great live bands, who does these live hiphop shows. Jazz musicians who grew up on Dilla like BadBadNotGood, Will Sessions and El Michels Affair, have you ever met these guys?

I checked out some of their music online, but I haven't met them. But it's great to see jazz musician helping jazz music evolve in different ways, and I think Robert Glasper has been a big part of that. And no one did more for it than Dilla, he made it okay for musicians to like drum programmers, that changed the world. Suddenly you got drummers checking out Dilla. It's funny, if I’m working with a drummer, if they haven't checked that stuff out, it's like we can not really communicate musically. That's part of the language now, which is amazing. One guy changed the language of music, that's incredible!

What can we look forward to from you in 2012?

Well, like I was saying before, this album project remixing and sampling classic jazz releases, that's the next big thing I'm working on. And it may be more than one album to, so that's fun.

There’s that, Sandra St Victor's record and then there's a big band album coming out on Tru Thoughts. It's like a twenty piece big band and I have the MPC and keyboard and stuff, it's quite fun. The big band is called the Rotterdam Jazz Orchestra, they already exist in Rotterdam, and they asked me to guest with them for a show, and we ended up recording and the record is coming out later on this year. There's always a lot of stuff going on, haha!

Any thoughts of a pure hiphop production album?

Yeah, I thought about it often, I don't know why I haven't done it. I've got notes somewhere with like all the guest haha! I really thought about it. And I know I can get to most of the people I wanna get to quite easily, so I’d love that to happen.

MC John Robinson guested on Church in New York, and the last month was the anniversary of Biggie's death, so we did an acoustic jazz kind of flip of Unbelievable. John got up, DJ Spinna was doing cuts with the R. Kelly sample on that. Spinna, the band, John, it was crazy. John was rocking the "Biggie Smalls is the illest" and then Spinna cut up "Biggie Smalls is the illest", haha! It's not online or anything yet, but I know that show was video'ed and I'm pretty sure it was recorded, so there's potential there. We had so much fun playing, especially to do it in New York on that day. And maybe if the recording didn't work out I'm actually may re-record it some time anyway.

You know, I love hiphop to death, like a lot, so it would be great to do a project like that.

Biggie Smalls - Unbelievable (1994)

Lastly to wrap things up, got any memorable tour stories?

There's a million tour stories, there's plenty I can't even repeat, haha! But it's been great to be in a seat to see the world this way, you know, to go places I never thought I go. To be able to share music to people who I never thought I meet is amazing. And it's a really blessed and privileged lifestyle, and seem to be continuing, so I feel very lucky like that.

That's it. We're looking forward to all your upcoming project in 2012 and hope to hook up soon again! 

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If you missed out on Part 1 of the interview check it here: The Beathearts MdCL sit-down part 1.


Beathearts selection of MdCL freebies:

Church mixtape vol.1 & 3:

Download: Mark de Clive-Lowe - Church Vol.1 + Church Vol.3

As a bonus here's MdCL's ode to the late Teena Marie:


Download: Mark de Clive-Lowe ft. Sy Smith - Teena (Lovergirl Syberized) 

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Blu ft. J'Davey - Everything's OK (Waajeed refix)

The re-launched Bling47 site is such a treat. Somewhat of a inbox backlog made us miss this gem first time around. Make sure you don't do the same mistake. Waajeed says:

"Kenny Fresh and I were going to release this mix on our Waajeed x FreshSelects project last year. The homie Blu asked me to remix the original version produced by Flying Lotus. After I finished this ruff mix, he asked for a two track of the instrumental to relay his vocal. He agreed to send it back so I could finish it...... It never showed up.

To quote Jay-Z, “What the fuck you done to that?” -- I gotta admit, those were the first words that came to my head when I heard what Blu (one of my favorite emcees) did to my remix. Well, It's sorta like a remix of a remix. Check his version (to get the whole story)." www.bling47.com

With this kind of heat dropping every week Waajeed is really turning up the heat for the upcoming Electric Street Orchestra album. We can't wait!

Download: Blu feat. Jack Davey (Full) (Waajeed Remix)

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Full Crate & Jesse Boykins III - See with me

Following the amazing FS Green rework of B4 the night is through, Jesse Boykins III continues work with Dutch producers. This time it's another of our favourite beatmakers, Full Crate who offers a deep sub bass electronic touch to Jesse's voice. Dope!

The EP is put out by Killawatt music and available now via Bandcamp.



As a bonus here's a repeat of the above mentioned FS Green rework:

Download: Jesse Boykins III - B4 the night is through (FS Green Electroluv remix)

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Stray Phrases performs J.Dilla's Donuts

Stumbled over this ace Dilla Donuts tribute treat courtesy of the nice folks over at Itsallthewaylive:

"Who would have thought that 3 NYU students would end up putting on the best homage performance at a laid back college hangout in Brooklyn.  But thats exactly what took place this past Thursday night as Storm Siegel (drums), Dave Mainella (piano) and Evan Crane (bass), collectively known as the jazz trio Stray Phrases, performed Donuts in its entirety at The Tea Lounge in Park Slope.  

In October of last year, the trio played their rendition of Donuts at a small bar in NYC. With the recent online buzz and Dilla’s anniversary approaching, the group held an encore show and masterfully interpreted the album once again.  There are countless Dilla tributes, but trust us when we say Stray Phrases’ is head over heels above the rest and is well worth your time.  ATWL is proud to offer our recording of the entire set."

Download: Stray Phrases performs J.Dilla's Donuts

Stray Phrases - Lightworks (Live @ The Tea Lounge, Brooklyn)

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The Beathearts Mark De Clive-Lowe Sitdown Part 1

"[Dilla] made it okay for musicians to like drum programmers, that changed the world. Suddenly you got drummers checking out Dilla. It's funny, if I’m working with a drummer, if they haven't checked that stuff out, it's like we can not really communicate musically. That's part of the language now, which is amazing. One guy changed the language of music, that's incredible!"

Artist: Mark de Clive-Lowe
Event: Dwight Trible Cosmic Band live @ Fasching Jazz Club
Location: Stockholm
Date: April 1st 2012

Mark de Clive-Lowe is a musician, DJ and producer originally from New Zealand. De Clive-Lowe was born and raised in Auckland, and now based in Los Angeles since 2009 after ten years residing in London. He was one of the key musicians in the evolvement of the Broken Beat and Nu Jazz movement, blending jazz, ethnic music and urban grooves into a 21st Century sound.

He has been involved with over 150 releases collaborating with as diverse a range of artists. He also runs his monthly event Church in LA, New York and on tour. It’s an eclectic blend of sounds ranging from acoustic jazz, improvised electronic beats sessions, and live DJ sets with surprise guests ranging from Robert Glasper and Louie Vega to Leon Ware and Pino Palladino.

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It's a snowy and quite chilly Sunday April 1st just after 8 PM when Dwight Trible Cosmic Band enter the stage at legendary Fasching Jazz Club. It's Dwight Trible on vocals, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson on violin, Mark de Clive-Lowe on keys/piano, Trevor Ware on bass and Dexter Story on drums.

After a great show we meet up with Mark as he's standing and talking to Opolopo and Amalia, and we learn that they already know each other.

How did the two of you meet? Any joint productions?

I started hearing about Opolopo when he was releasing music and I'd get promos sent to me. We met one time that I was in stockholm for a show. Amalia was there too and I'd already met her from when I was in Vancouver for a week in 2006 recording the Politik album during downtime on my Canada tour with Bembe Segue. We've never done any collaborations.

Any other Swedish connections? There are a few that might have crossed your path like Melo, Rasmus Faber, Pure P, Adam Beyer, Jesper Dahlbäck, Alexi Delano? 

Yeah, Mad Mats, he released my production for Lady Alma "Running for Nothing". And I did a twelve [Keep it moving] quite a long time ago for a label called Funk of Fury, they were based here. And then, I did some stuff with Andreas Saag, a down tempo thing. That was cool, because Dilla had just died, and Andreas sent me this thing. It was like beautiful strings, live recorded stuff, so I just kind of in the headspace of Dilla just resampled it all and put it into the MPC, so the tune starts, and the first half is live recording, and the second half goes into more of a beat thing, that was a lot of fun.

But yeah, there's a lot of great talent here, I know of Rasmus Fabers work, I never met him, and the other names I know of but haven’t met them.


Andreas Saag aka. Swell Sessions vs. Mark de Clive-Lowe - All of Me

Great performance tonight, how did you meet up with Dwight Trible and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson?

Dwight and I met, we actually met in London very briefly once, he was in a show, and it was the first time a heard him, said wow you´re amazing, just kind of in passing said hello.

And then when I moved to LA, I actually met Miguel first, at a jam session near Skid Row, downtown. It's a crazy area, but it was a jam session down in a studio and no one knew who's gonna be there. There was rumor that Zap Mama was gonna be there, but the guy organizing said you gotta come. I cant tell you who's coming, but if you don't come you're gonna regret it. So I went down, and there was Zap Mama, Sa-Ra Creative Partners, Computer Jay, Miguel, Nia Andrews. There was a whole crew of people, so I met Miguel at that time, and we didn't connect ‘til a bit later on, but that's when we first met.

Later, when I was making my album I wanted strings on one track, so I hit him up, and he was more than happy to do it, so that's when we started working more together.

And then as for Dwight, I started a monthly party in LA called Church. Before I moved to LA I was kind of been running away from the jazz musician side of me. I was like, no I don't play piano anymore, I produce and the remixes and whatever. But in LA, I couldn't help it, it kept coming back to me, so I started this night with Church.

It starts with a jazz trio and then it becomes more and more beats and live remixing as the night goes on. Dwight would come down and check it out, he loved it, he jammed a few times. And then Trevor (Ware) was playing bass with me, and Dexter (Story) started playing drums with me, so they were saying to Dwight, you gotta get Mark in the band, we need Mark in the band. So I joined the band, at the same time as Miguel did pretty much, and it sort of came together so organically and beautifully and it works. This is a band, not just a group of musicians playing together, its a band.

So you do this tour in combination with the Church tour?

Well, we're doing a Church night in Lisbon tomorrow, but with this band. So the first half will be like Dwight's set, and then it will be more and more my kind of tip. Two of the shows will be with Build an Ark and Carlos Nino. It's really unique and special vibe we all have together.


Build An Ark ft Dwight Trible - Peace and LOVE! (Trevor's Mood)

The first time we discovered your music was when Gilles Peterson and Benji-B first dropped Heaven part 1 & 2 back in 2005. It’s such a classic track and we were hooked from the first few bars. Could you tell us the story of how that tune came about?

I was working on that album, Tide's Arising. I think when I started working on it Dwele's demos was circulating a lot. It was before he dropped his first major label album, but there was always demos coming through, and it was so fresh hearing his shit. Between him, Dilla, Slum Village, Soulquarians, that was a huge influence, so Heaven and another joint on the same album called Quintessential, those were kind of my homage and acknowledgement to the American influences.

I actually sent the beat for Heaven to Dwele, that was before Bembe (Segue) did it. We met briefly, but didn't really connect. It was funny, because when the album came out, he's like “Yo, me and Waajeed are listening to your record, and that Heaven track it's amazing, man!” and I was like, that's the beat I sent you man! Haha!

But it was cool, because Bembe did an amazing job on that and she really brought it to life. I mean, she and I had just started working together properly when I was making that record. I though she was gonna guest on one track and she ended up doing most of the record, and that was the start of our collaboration/partnership.

Have you done anything with Dwele later on?

I've worked on a remix with Aaron Ross for him. We never done anything directly, but I mean, he's one of those guys where, if were in the same place we catch up, hang out a little bit, and I love to at some point do something with him. I think he's a really cool talent.

The video for Heaven is beautiful but pretty out there. It has sort of the same vibe as Dilla’s Nothing like this (Ruff Draft). What is it about? How did you come up with that concept?

There was a video company in New Zealand who wanted to do the video. They had a concept and storyboard and everything, and I said well okay, you do your video. I didn't have a vision for a video at that time, so I was curious to see what they do. Then when it was all done, that's what it is. No, so I got no great story to share about that, haha! No acid trip, it was nothing like that.



Mark de Clive-Lowe - Heaven feat. Bembe Segue (2004)  
Beatmakers and drummers are a great source of inspiration for us. People like Karriem Riggins, Madlib, Questlove and of course Dilla's music was one of the main reasons for us to start writing about soulful underground music. We know the keyboard/piano is your first language but are you a drummer/percussionist as well?

When I do my own live shows, with the MPC or the machine, all the beats get programmed live. I start the show with nothing basically, like the show last night in London. I have acapellas on the turntables, and then I build the whole tracks as they happen. So I love that, I love programming. I think I'm a frustrated bass player and a frustrated drummer, so when it comes to making production and making beats, I love that side of it. Drums and bass, that's two things I love. I've never played kit as such though. I played a little bit of percussion, but not actually a live drum kit.

But yeah, all those guys you mentioned are huge influences. And on the more dancefloor tip, Kenny Dope, is a huge influence. Bugz In The Attic and of course all the west London crews that came trough, like IG Culture and Afronaught.

Speaking of Kenny Dope, one of the first post here on Beathearts was the true story behind the Nervous track. How a bored Kenny Dope put together all the different jazz drummer loops and called up Nervous label founder Mike Weiss in the middle of the night wanting him to sign the track over the phone.

Yeah, I mean, it's a classic! You drop it today it still sounds like it was made tomorrow. It's incredible!


Nu Yorican Soul – The nervous track (1993)

What does the creative process behind a new Mark de Clive-Lowe track look like? Is it like a jam session where you pull out the best parts? How does a new track come about?

It's very organic. If I'm doing a remix, there was a time when it was like a huge process of worrying about what I was gonna do and being stressed about trying different things. Now if I'm doing a remix I just sit down and do it. Whatever comes out, that's how it is, I don't question myself. I just have trust in my own intuition with that.

When I’m working on tracks for other people, like I just did the new album for Sy Smith, I know what she likes. She likes really lush harmony, and a little bit jazzy, so I kinda shaped it for her.

And when I’m making my own stuff for myself, I like to always try to do something different that I haven't done before. There's a overall sound that people can recognize, like on my new record Renegades, there's some joints that, I never put those approaches and vibes on a record before.

I like it to keep changing, but I do like it to be super organic. Sometimes I go see a drummer and just play for a day. I mean I've got HOURS of me, Pino Palladino and a couple of other different drummers just playing. I mean, there's albums right there, you know it's crazy. There's a couple of joints on the Renegades album that were from studio jam sessions. Two interludes where this great drummer Louie John Roberts, he played with like Prince, George Duke, Lucy Pearl. We just went to the studio and played all day, and the two interludes on the album are from moments in the studio.

Listen to the Renegades Interludes I & II HERE.

So, speaking of Sy Smith, there's a Billy Ocean cover on the album, was that your idea or hers?

That was her idea actually. We had almost finished the record and she had that idea, so I just made the track basically, which was great, it was like a good learning thing. It was funny, growing up, like a jazz musician, especially when you're young musician, you transcribe solos, and learning solos, learn by copying, so it was cool to do the whole track like that. I just remake the track.


Sy Smith & MdCL - Nights (Feel Like Gettin' Down)

How do you feel about music you've done in the past, do you ever listen to your old records? Do you feel that you've evolved musically and personally touring over the years?

I'm thankful that I'm always changing, and growing and evolving musically and personally. I feel I have a strong connection between my personal growth and my musical expression. It's not like, you know some people make pop music and their personal life is a whole different thing.

I keep it all together and I like that. I feel that if I enjoyed making something, whenever I hear it again I can still feel that vibe. If I really hated making something, then I have trouble listening to it again. That doesn't happen with my own music, because if I don't like it I wont put it out. But that's happened on keyboard sessions sometimes. I remember when I started working with Phil Asher in the UK, there was a couple of sessions, I just couldn't do it! And he's like "It's great, it's done!" And I said "No it's not done" and later when he was spinning that track, and I was like "Oh no don't play that…” haha!

But you know, I'm really hard on myself. A harch critic of other people and on myself. I think that helps me trying to keep the quality at a certain point. There was an album I did called 6 Degrees, it came out 2000, and when I listen to that, production-wise, I hear the difference between then and now, what I did, very clearly. But I still feel very close to that record, I feel like it was an honest expression. And as long as it's an honest creative expression I can listen to it anytime, that's where I was at.


Mark de Clive-Lowe - El dia perfecto (Six Degrees LP 1999)

How did you get started music wise?

My dad made me start playing piano when I was 4 years old. So I grew up playing piano all my life. In high school I've gone to Native Tongues hiphop. Even early Teddy Riley and stuff like that, I was loving that! I felt that the musicality of his soul productions were incredible. So I bought some drum machines, some keyboards, and all that stuff. I didn't know what I was doing, but I was 14-15 years old and trying to make beats, thinking I was gonna be Teddy Riley, haha!

Guy - Teddy's jam part 2 (Live @ Arsenio Hall) 

Did you get a vocoder as well?

Haha! Nah, I never got that vocoder. It was interresting, because one day I was like, I don't wanna do this, I just wanna work on the piano. So I sold all my equipement, all my records and just had the piano and the jazz records and went with that for that for a long time. And it wasn't until jungle happened that I got back into club and listened to more sample based music. When I heard that I was like wow, this is music!

I was in New Zealand then and before that, it was all acid house rave stuff. Now I can appreciate [those genres] for what it is, but back then I was like, “What is this? I don't get it”. I had friends go out clubbing to that. But when jungle came along I was like, “I get THIS!” Haha!

And then it was stuff like 4hero and a joint called Loveless, that was a seminal track that definitely kind of changed the whole way I thought. It's Dego and Ursula Rucker basically, and the Roni Size record (Reprazent - New Forms 1997) that was a big moment for me hearing that.

Then when I went to the UK, my first two sessions, one was for Dave Angel, doing like a crazy techno jazz thing. The track with Dave is a track called Live jazz. I dont think it was ever released. I probably have it on a minidisk (!) somewhere.

The second was for Metalheadz with Sci-Clone (Hold on 1999). So going to the UK, not knowing what I was doing, and starting with one of the kings of English techno and the best drum & bass label, I was like okay, now what do I do? Haha!



Sci-Clone ft MdCL - Hold on  (1997)
Did you ever work with Photek or Mark Pritchard?

No, I've never worked with Photek. I've worked with Lemon D quite a bit, and A-Sides, but never with Photek. It was great hearing that music, because it was so fresh and different. And then when I was in the UK in 1998, and seeing people, especially the west London crews, IG Culture, Bugz in the Attic, Phil Asher and Dego. Seeing them using drum machines and samplers, and as a trained musician knowing they weren't trained musicians, and hearing what they were making inspired me so much. Wow, this is the shit! So I bought an MPC and made a record. And from then on, that's what I was doing! Haha!

And as for Mark Pritchard, I never worked with him, but we talk now and then, but we never collaborated. But that would be interesting, he's a really dope producer, everything he does is so interesting, he does so many different styles.


Kinda like you, that's why we thought of him.

Haha, I guess so. That's a good idea! I'll drop him an email.

================================================================

That's the end of Part 1 of our sit-down with Mark de Clive-Lowe. Check part 2 below where we discuss Mark's inspirations, get more into depth about his Church live concept and get an insight into amazing the underground scene in New Zealand: The MdCL sit-down part 2

As a bonus here's DJ Spinna's epic mixtape of some of MdCL's best work to date:

Download: DJ Spinna – Best of MdCL mixtape

Tracklist:
1. Freesoul Sessions - EP1 Part III (Live) (Antipodean)
2. MdCL - Koko + Lee Roe (Mashibeats)
3. MdCL presents Rahel - Hope (Mashibeats)
4. Mark de Clive-Lowe feat Bembe Segue - Heaven (ABB Soul)
5. Mark de Clive-Lowe - Pino & Mashi (ABB Soul)
6. Mark de Clive-Lowe feat nia andrews - We Renegades (Tru Thoughts)
7. The Politik feat Blu - Moonlight (Antipodean)
8. Isoul8 + MdCL - Stop Bajon (Archive)
9. Lady Alma - Running for Nothing (Antipodean)
10. Mark de Clive-Lowe - Just Wanna (Tru Thoughts)
11. Mark de Clive-Lowe feat nia andrews - The Why (Tru Thoughts)
12. Omar - Your Mess (MdCL remix) (Tru Thoughts)
13. Zed Bias feat Toddla T & MdCL - Koolade (Tru Thoughts)
14. Mark de Clive-Lowe feat Omar + Sheila E - Get Started (Tru Thoughts)
15. Sandra St Victor - F.M.A.O.-ocity (instrumental) (Strategic Soul Ventures)
16. MdCL - Eight (Mashibeats)
17. Shirley Horn - Return to Paradise (Mark de Clive-Lowe remix) (Verve)
18. Mark de Clive-Lowe & Olatunde - The Calling (Mashibeats)
19. Phlash & Friends - Running feat Shea Soul (Archive)
20. Shafiq Husayn - Nirvana (MdCL remix) (Plug Research)
21. Alison Crockett - When I Think of You (Mark de Clive-Lowe remix) (Sol Image)
22. Aaries - Don't Give It Up (MdCL remix) (test)
23. Mark de Clive-Lowe feat Abdul Shyllon - Relax… Unwind (MAW Records)
24. The Politik - Money (Don't Let It Catch Ya) (Antipodean)
25. Mark de Clive-Lowe - Slide (ABB Soul)
26. DJ Spinna feat Ovasoul7 - You Should Be Loving Me (Wonderwax)
27. Yameen feat Lady Alma - Light of Love (MdCL remix) (Rumble Pack)
28. Sole Fusion feat Vee - I Got Rhythm (Dopewax)
29. MdCL presents Sy Smith - Truth (Strictly Rhythm)
30. Incognito - Feel The Pressure (Mark de Clive-Lowe remix) (Dome)
31. MusicLoveLife - The Bass that Don't Stop (Nepenta)
32. Mark de Clive-Lowe - El Dia Perfecto (Universal)
33. Ed Motta - É muita Gig Véi !!! (MdCL remix) (Ether)
34. MdCL feat Bembe Segue - Love Broke (Mashibeats)

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QUAKERS - U'LL B SORRY (KUTMAH RE-EDIT)

Stones Throw keeps bringing freshness. Quakers is a 35 member thick hip-hop collective orbiting around three producers: Fuzzface, 7-Stu-7 and Katalyst.

"Fuzzface is better known as Portishead’s Geoff Barrow, a long-time Stones Throw supporter in touch with Peanut Butter Wolf since championing the Jaylib album back in 2004. 7-Stu-7 is Portishead’s engineer and in-house producer at Invada Records in the UK. Katalyst is one of the most respected producers in Australia and a partner in Invada Records."

Here's a fine lil' edit of Quakers' track U'll B sorry reconstructed by UK based Kutmah:


Download: Quakers - U'll B sorry (Kutmah re-edit)

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Badbadnotgood - BBNG2

Oh My lord! Them BBNG-boys done dit it again! We've praise the multitalented Toronto crew so many times it suffice to say go get it. It's their second album. It's dope like the 80s crack epidemic. It's free.

Download: Badbadnotgood - BBNG2

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The Wonderful Sound of Induce - Hot As Love (prod. Robin Hannibal)

Miami up and comer Induce sings on top of this Robin Hannibal instrumental. Fantasticly groovy! Take a listen and get it for free while it's available!

“Do yourself a favor and give Induce a listen. Without a doubt, he is one of Miami’s best kept secrets and has completely blown me away.” - Rich Medina

First major single is available over at Fat Beats from the upcoming album entitled “Halfway Between Me And You.”


Induce words:

So the story goes…I heard this instrumental produced by Robin Hannibal during his time at the Red Bull Music Academy last year and I couldn’t let it live it’s life without lyrics. Within the first few listens, I had the whole song in my head, all while driving around one day. So I went home, wrote it all out, recorded it, got a friend to sing the girl parts, re-recorded those, and here it is. It’s TOTALLY UNOFFICIAL and UNAUTHORIZED, although I heard through the grapevine he digs it a little bit. Hopefully, you will too.” – induce

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