back in the game baby

What up Radio Monash, past, present and future members! New year gearing up, thought I’d check in and catch up, after a good 8 months since my last post...

In short - went to Eastern Europe, got fall-down drunk for a lot of it, haggled with street merchants for old cassettes of Turkish psychedelic folk music, wrote some new music at any piano or keyboard I could find (props to my hostel in Antwerp for supplying a baby grand in my room!), got back to London for a few weeks of hardcore record digging, eventually crashed back home with a head full of new sounds, which you’ll probably hear about in the next few paragraph.

Joy Orbison
Apart from having probably the coolest stage name in dubstep (sorry 2562), this 22-year old cat from South London is releasing some of the freshest sounding beats out there. His Hyph Mngo 12”/digi release of 2009 introduces listeners to a spacey blend of rhythmic synth wobbles and deeeep sub bass with a nod to the ‘funky’ movement of late - the drums have a real 2-step garage flavour to them. The whole thing just feels like a big night in London. His remix of the Jose James release Blackmagic is also on high rotation.

Jay Electronica
From the first line of his internet promo “Suckas” - “this goes out to those who choose to use disrespectful views on the game of h-i-p-h-o-p...” - Jay-Elec shows us why he’s the next era in the US rap game. He’s been around the block (enough to be deemed worthy of a Dilla beat on the aforementioned track), he’s hooked up with Erykah Badu (joining other hiphop visionaries Andre 3000 and Common) and now with a carefully-timed series of soul-sample-drenched releases, namely Exhibit A and Exhibit C, he’s blowing up the mp3 blogs and rocking shows in LA. The rhymes are delivered with a gruff baritone, they’re complex and self-illuminating and the comparisons to early Nas are many. No clear album release plans yet, but when you’re rolling with Just Blaze & Mos Def and everyone on Hype Machine knows your name, what do you need promotion for?

The RaAH Project
Local pride. Ryan “RHyNO” Ritchie & Tamil Rogeon of Melbourne’s True Live undertake something far beyond the usual confines of hiphop. Score combines a wide range of influences, from 60s modal jazz to classical themes, to create a powerful suite of cinematic orchestrations. The “instrumentation” listing in the liner notes is staggering, having enlisted players from Melbourne’s orchestral community to provide dense layers of sound which are then re-sampled and integrated into Ritchies MPC-soul arrangements. A guest vocal spot on the vaudeville-tinged “Trick Of The Light” by legendary crooner Bob Valentine is a highlight, but the album is intended as a whole. It’s being performed live with a 17-piece orchestra this Friday at the new Recital Centre. Go get some culture in you, and revel in the other side of the Melbourne music scene, the one that doesn’t revolve around the Tote.

I’ll be taking up my usual DJ post at Host Scheme Night this year, up in the Radio Monash room from 10.30pm onwards. Joining me will be galapagoose, who’ll be helping to select the finest dancefloor-oriented beats and pieces for a funky, wacked-out, crazy alternative to the main-room electro nonsense. I’m also planning on getting an actual show this year, so I can start playing this music to people instead of just writing about it...peace out