ethiopium
Hey there! It’s the end of the day, and we haven’t uttered a peep — sorry about that. I wanted to draw quick attention to a record that we are particularly excited about, and think you might be too.
It’s on Stones Throw, which should almost be enough of a pitch these days. Peanut Butter Wolf’s label continues to push in all sorts of new directions, and, improbably enough, all of them are proving to be awesome. We’ve already talked up the dead-on Temptations/Impressions/Stylistics homage coming our way in September from Mayer Hawthorne, but there’s also Dam Funk, a pioneer of West Coast laid-back synth funk. The man is releasing FIVE separate LPs this fall — installments in a massive collected tome called Toeachizown. This guy is kind of the O.G. of what he does, and hosts a party in L.A. that I hear is quite a bit like stepping back into 1983. The first volume drops next month, and the full set should be enough instrumental ’80s robot boogie to soundtrack a month’s worth of Ibiza after-hours parties.
But the record I’m personally looking forward to the most is Ethiopium, which is a sequel, of sorts, to Oh No’s brilliant Dr. No’s Oxperiment from 2007, an instrumental hip hop record that made an endlessly diverting hash out of a seemingly bottomless crate of European psych records. Some smartass named Joe Keyes called it “Donuts with hummous” in our review, and the new one, Ethiopium, as you might already have guessed, repeats the same trick, but with Ethiopian funk. Ethiopian Donuts, I suppose you would call this one. (Slumberland band name?)
Anyhow, Stones Throw has posted an 8-minute sample mix on their website, and it sounds like Oh No has the same alchemist’s ear (no Alchemist) for turning Ethiopian funk into artfully scuffed and textured boom-bap as he did with the Turkish garage rock and the like he mined for Dr. No’s Oxperiment. To put it simply, it sounds like it’s probably going to be incredible.
Get excited!
I look forward to almost all Stones Throw releases (except that inexplicable gangster-rap record they put out last year). So, yeah, I’m excited.
Co-signing the anticipation on this and all of this fall’s Stones Throw stuff. If you haven’t heard Dr. No’s Oxperiment, go get it now. Mos Def nabbed the first song, “Heavy,” for his own album, The Ecstatic and made it something special. Go get that, too. Oh No is very quietly one the best producers – not just in rap, in music period – working today.
Hey, how about a feature on Japanese language music? I’d be very interested (particularly in Japanese female vocalists).
“If you haven’t heard Dr. No’s Oxperiment, go get it now. Mos Def nabbed the first song, ‘Heavy,’ for his own album, The Ecstatic and made it something special. Go get that, too.”
I’ve got Dr. No’s Oxperiment. Not sure I’ve listened to it more than once (not a knock on it, just not enough time). What’s the best few tracks on it — I’d use those as my gateway to the whole disc.
I’ve had The Ecstatic on my saved-for-later list for a while now. Something’s kept me from downloading it, tho. Not sure what.
I don’t know what this guy Daniel Esquire is talking about but that “explicable rap” was dilla protege Guilty Simpson, and that album was dope as all hell. Let us fairweather stones throw fans recognize it started out as a RAP LABEL. Now we should feel lucky if they put out hip-hop with lyrics.
Yeah, Guilty Simpson was the artist. Just not for my ears, I suppose (not too much in that genre appeals to me, TBH, aside from Ghostface and some Wu-Tang Clan, which rise above a lot of other hardcore rap with attention to detail lyrically (Ghostface) and 70s soul-sampling (Wu-Tang)). I didn’t see any other rap acts similar to Simpson on the Stones Throw label, but maybe I missed it. I am a big J Dilla fan, tho, and I like some of his production-touches on Simpson’s songs, especially the fact that Simpson’s songs don’t seem to depend totally on a throbbing base.
Similar acts also…all be them not as violent that are MED, Oh No, and Roc C although i doubt roc c is still signed to ST.
“that inexplicable gangster-rap record they put”
HA!!!!! Kid, if you think Guilty Simpson was gangster rap, you need to protect your ears from getting sawed off if they ever happen to come in touch with real gangsta rap. Guilty’s album – especially the cornier tracks like “Gettin’ Bitches” – was not the nuanced, soulful and experimental kind that we know from Stones Throw’s Madvillain, Quasimoto, etc, but compared to actual gangsta rap albums (of the past and present), it was just that.
Vilens, agreed that Roc C seems like he’s off the label. That guy’s album was the worst piece of misfired shit they ever dropped on it. They must have lost a bet with the guy, or been tricked into putting that record out.
Saw this (ethiopium) is now up on the stones throw website, but it seems unclear when it might get released elsewhere. Any word on if/when it’ll show up on emu?