
[This made for a nice trip into the Buzz Bands archives ; check out the two bands I featured almost five years ago ...] Five years ago Shanna Halligan arrived, with some degree of sultry splendor, as the vocalist of Bitter:Sweet , an electronic duo whose trip-hop/bossa nova stylings seemed perfect for spy movie soundtracks and slick TV commercials, if not the occasional candlelight dinner. The daughter of Blood Sweat & Tears' Dick Halligan moved on after two albums, her vocals appearing [...]

Last Call (Toast Up) - Illastrate Find The One - Luv Jonez Drift Away - Incise The latest compilation "Amphibious" from WIB favorite compiler, the Italian homie Melaz. Melaz brings it STRONG once again, with sultry assortment of beats, 30 tracks deep and all laced real well. You really don't want to miss out on this one. Featuring Ta-Ku, Incise, The Doppelgangaz, TM Juke, Eric Lau, Apollo Brown and Evil Needle amongst others. DOWNLOAD ON MEDIAFIRE [...]
We're half way through the "Music that Got Me Blogging About Music" and it's only up hill.. down hill.. get's better from here. In this portion we will be covering the groups from abroad. Additionally, they're all not from hip-hop, though they do incorporate hip-hop elements and occasionally rap. The list was only gonna have 4 artists covered on here, the final five (Part 5) took the best from here, but I decided to add one on because a few of his songs were very present in my life back when. [...]
Après Mr. Scruff et Guts , ce troisième volet du 8ème anniversaire de What The Funk vous offre une nuit exceptionnelle qui ravira aussi bien les fidèles du hip-hop de la première heure, que les danseurs les plus fous ! Tout d'abord, à 21h, le live des Jungle Brothers ouvrira le bal. Mike Gee, Afrika Baby Bam et DJ Sammy B sont des activistes depuis plus de 20 ans, opérant avant l'heure un subtile mélange entre hip-hop , jazz [...]

Whats up world. It's been a minute. Life's been crazy and I've been travelling around doing my thang. But I don't want you all to think I forgot about you. Here's one of my favorite jams from October. The original track is by Gizelle Smith out of the UK and it's amazing in her own right. You should really get her album. It's awesome. ( Get it Here ). But IMO, (and thats why you are reading this, duh) is that the TM Juke remix is just perfect. He even puts a lo-fi vocal effect on [...]

Tru Thoughts Covers have been releasing jazzy, soulful covers of various chart toppers and dance floor anthems over a number of years but they're now available in a single CD for you to enjoy. Excellent. TM Juke & The Jack Baker Trio - Put you hands up for Detriot (Fedde le Grand cover) Nostalgia 77 ft. Alison Russell - Seven nation army (The White Stripes cover)

Featuring enough boundary blurring styles to please the real music fan as well as names to attract a disparate listenership the lastest release from the excellent First Word Records is '17 Samurai', an album of remixes of Kidkanevil tracks. True to Kidk's original design this selection of reworks will take you on a rollercoaster of emotion through unchartered soundscapes. '17 Samurai Vol. 1' is too distracting as background music - the only thing to do is to don some Kidkanevil-esque headphones (preferably over a beanie and a hoody), find a darkened room and actually listen [...]

This is what it's been like lately in MTL. Most people hide from the rain. But I welcome it. I loooove the rain! I say, bring it on! Rain makes everything better. Rain at the end of "Paranoid Android" in Vancouver. Rain at the end of "Man in the Mirror" for Wonder's set. And today, rain during Alice Russell and David Rotundo Band and Enrico Crivellaro was wonderful. Today was a good day! Great music all day long! Recap after the jump! This Halifax [...]

This is what it's been like lately in MTL. Most people hide from the rain. But I welcome it. I loooove the rain! I say, bring it on! Rain makes everything better. Rain at the end of "Paranoid Android" in Vancouver. Rain at the end of "Man in the Mirror" for Wonder's set. And today, rain during Alice Russell and David Rotundo Band and Enrico Crivellaro was wonderful. Today was a good day! Great music all day long! Recap after the jump! This Halifax [...]

Time for the latest instalment in my recent series of posts " Things that happened weeks ago ". Having declared Friday SXSW's unofficial " Stalk a band " day I headed off to a Holiday Inn to get those vital " loading gear into the taxi " shots. The poor souls kind enough to let me be their shadow for the day were Alice Russell, producer/guitarist TM Juke and band. Long before Bernard Butler gave Duffy an ipod with something called "Soul music" on, Alice has been at the forefront of UK Soul. The latest album " [...]

So as many of you don't know i just got back from chi, OK more like last week. I've just been a tad lazy on uploading my pictures from my digi-cam , which are not all that great. first of all id like to say that Chicago (from what i know) has the best style of American food I've ever experienced (u know pizza, hot dogs, burgers) and a very large number of very cheap and good [...]

Every Football Season I Broke My Daddy's Heart (01), 2007, Digital Art as Giclee Print, 153x203. All over the board, after the bump: (more...)

(Art credit still goes to Jocko .) It's been a good week here at TSS . That said, I'll resume with the light posting starting today as I buckle down again on The Rex Monday fiction suit, clarifying its vision while avoiding the simplistic. I had planned on holding this LP until Monday, but I suppose I shouldn't leave all o' youze without something to amuse yourselves. Lord knows what manners of damage you might inflict. After the break, some songs for your consideration. Like what you [...]
Funky Friday Shapes I recently picked up the lastest compilation from jazzy downtempo label Tru Thoughts called Shapes Compilation. It is a collection of tracks highlighting it's own acts like Quantic, Alice Russell, Nostalgia 77 and Diesler, and then some of the acts on it's hip hop imprint Zebra Traffic. It was an impulse buy that has turned out pretty well as I am digging it's blend of jazzy